The Net is interactive, participatory, stimulating, they say.
TV is passive, deadening.
Ironic, then, that in the drive to popularize computer-based entertainment, software companies are working feverishly to turn surfing the World Wide Web into something more akin to watching the tube. The latest example is so-called push technology, a catchphrase describing new systems for delivering a wide selection of news and entertainment to computer screens without the user having to do anything. It's red hot. Numerous information services based on push systems have sprouted, while Internet giants Microsoft and Netscape are rushing to incorporate the technology into up-coming versions of their dueling Web browsers. The concept is simple.