Microsoft Corp is putting pressure on Netscape Communications Corp by submitting extensions to its Channel Definition format (CDF) push specifications to the World Wide Web consortium (W3C) that enable Netscape’s Netcaster push technology to use the format. For its part Netscape says it can already do all the things CDF does with JavaScript. Serious push advocates, such as Marimba Inc have repeatedly dismissed Microsoft’s technology as overly simplistic and irrelevant, but Redmond persists nonetheless. The W3C says it has not assigned the CDF stuff to any particular working group yet, but there is an advisory committee meeting in mid-June, when it may or may not be brought up. The previous meeting was back in January. When Microsoft submitted the original spec to the W3C it was very confident that the group’s members would rubber-stamp its submission. However, the W3C, which cannot speak for its members, suggested otherwise. This move by Redmond could be seen as an attempt to offset the more obvious objections that Netscape and others might raise at this month’s meeting. Details of CDF are scarce, but it involves HRTML, Dynamic HTML and ActiveX. Microsoft has extended CDF so Netcaster can benefit from the way CDF groups content into categories, but not the scheduling features apparently. Redmond’s main partners in pushing CDF are PointCast Inc, America Online Inc and BackWeb Inc. á
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