<nettime> Microsoft's content channel bar

[Frank Hartmann <hartmann@fsf.adis.at>]

Supposing that some nettimers might have missed it, I forward this and
the following piece from this week's real audio interview transcript
between McChesney from Hotwired and Brad Chase, manager of the Internet
Explorer at Microsoft, on the release of the new IE 4.0:

> McChesney: So let's talk about the push channel, or the channel bar as you call it. And I believe Microsoft's
> term for this is "automated pull," am I correct? 
> 
> Chase: Well, when you're trying to make the technical distinction of what's going on, I like to use the term
> "scheduled pull." A lot of people call it push, but that's not really technically what's happening. 
> 
> McChesney: Maybe for those people who are still not into this terminology, we should explain a little bit about
> what we're talking about. This is sort of, you decide you want a Web site to send material to your PC, say
> overnight, and it downloads overnight and then you can bring it in that way. Or you can bring it in real time, I
> suppose. But then you are actually voluntarily subscribing to something that then is pushed out to your computer.
> 
> Chase: Right, that's correct. The key distinction is where a channel, or what we call an actor channel, is where
> you've decided to have a site send you information on a regular basis, as opposed to when you browse the
> Web when you're going out and searching and seeking the information. 
> 
> McChesney: What makes you think - why did you guys decide to put this right up front there on the browser?
> What makes you think people want to have this sort of thing on their desktop? 
> 
> Chase: Well, there's a number of reasons. In essence, what you want with a browser is to get to information
> you want more quickly. So there's a number of ways in IE 4 that we've done that. One is to have this channel bar
> available, which, by the way, any user can turn off or customize however he or she wants to. In addition to that,
> you could put information right on the desktop itself. So we, in general, from our research with users, found that
> they find it's still hard to get to the information they want. And channels represents a set of information that you
> probably want to see on a regular basis. That doesn't mean you're going to stop browsing the Web - quite the
> opposite - but since that's very timely information that you want to get on a regular basis, it made sense to make
> that very accessible. 
> 
> McChesney: Now, I would presume that when you ship the new browser, there will be default channels already
> loaded into here, and I think I've seen some of those. Is that correct? 
> 
> Chase: That's right. In fact, we announced just recently that not only will there be defaults, but over 200 major
> content companies, the leaders in business and consumer content have announced their support for channels. 
> 
> McChesney: So when I get that channel bar and I open it, I'll see Disney, Warner Brothers ... what else will I
> see there? 
> 
> Chase: You'll see people like Disney, Warner Brothers, you'll see people like The New York Times, The Wall
> Street Journal, you'll see people in sports, like ESPN or SportsLine.... 
> 
> McChesney: Now, 200 participants is a big list. Are they going to all be on there? 
> 
> Chase: No, they won't all be on there. The over 200 is a worldwide announcement. So that we basically
> announced that not just business and consumer content leaders from the US, but from around the world, are
> going to be creating active channels. So in the US you'll probably see, I don't know, around 25 or 30 of the
> major content providers there by default for you to choose from. But of course, any user can add or subtract any
> channels they want to, and it'll be really easy to go to a Web site and click on a button and add that Web site's
> channel to your channel bar. 
> 
> McChesney: How do you get rid of them, because somebody was telling me they're having a problem with
> that. Is that a problem with the beta version; does it take a programmer to delete these things, or is it really easy
> to.... 
> 
> Chase: No, it's really easy. If that person was having a problem, it's probably just a problem with their beta.
> You'll be able, for example, to choose right-click and delete. 
> 
> McChesney: That's simple enough. 
> 
> Chase: Yeah, it's really simple. 
> 
> McChesney: If you're familiar with right-click, of course. 

----


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