A precursor to Push Technology

My mother operates a very select clipping service. She reads the daily newspaper with three boxes in front of her, one for each of her children. As she reads, she clips, putting clippings that she thinks would interest one of us in the relevant box. How does she know what interests us? First off, she is our mother, but that's not the only way. Over the years, any time we've expressed an interest in any particular topic she's filed that information in her head, and is always ready to clip an article on that same topic.

Essentially that's how Push Technology works. Instead of sitting and waiting for you to go to the information, it brings the information to you. The push servers have a user profile of you, usually gleaned from a questionnaire you've filled out, though in my mother's case there's really no need for that sort of formality.

We've often wondered why Mom hasn't gone commercial with her clipping service. It's fast, accurate above and beyond the call of duty (once you've expressed an interest in a subject it's close to impossible to dissociate from it), and it's conducted as a labor of love - which is more than can be said for present-day Push.