Organizations can use similar mechanisms to ensure pushed material meets certain guidelines. Repeatedly searching the Web for information on a particular topic can be both time-consuming and frustrating. Configuring your PC to receive pushed information is relatively easy, often requiring you to simply download and install the push vendor's software from a Web site such as BackWeb's Polite Agent or Marimba Inc.'s Castanet. Some vendors even push their services without requiring anything on the user' s end but a Web browser and an Internet connection.
Users fill out a profile specifying what types of information they want.
The filter then retrieves relevant information and sends it to the user's desktop. Information profiles are essentially search queries that find information within channels and other sources. They are rigidly defined and usually search by key words. The profiles work well for simple queries such as weather forecasts or stock quotes, but they can work poorly for more complex queries in which the user is trying to define and search a broader concept, such as employee retention. Using it for the latter tends to result in large quantities of information that must still be reevaluated and digested by the user to determine its true relevance.