Push, the monster that won't die

Push, the monster that won’t die
: Push, created by that Dr. Frankenstein of the bubble, Pointcast, will not die.

AOL bought the successor to Pointcast and with its new Communicator email/IM client, it adds a push screensaver, complete with annoying, moving graphics that’ll give you a seizure.

I first saw Pointcast before it was released and I hated it immediately. First, it seemed ridiculous to me to deliver news and advertising via a screensaver, for your screensaver comes on when you’re not using your computer; this was the delivery channel aimed at an audience down the hall in the bathroom. Second, the application was a hog of computer power and bandwidth; it brought down corporate networks the world around. Third, it was simply overdone with annoying graphics and other wasted bits; it was a program with a big ego.

I left the demo and decided that I could deliver the value of Pointcast with nothing more than a browser page that refreshed every minute with the latest news. Thus, with some help, Newsflash was born. It still lives. Pointcast turned down $500 million from Rupert Murdoch and eventually died.

And the saga continues: Gary Wolf, who just wrote a history of Wired magazine, declares on his book-blog [via Scott Rosenberg] that the single dumbest story ever in the magazine was its cover cooing over push.