1997 we had this crazy notion of web "channels" (like RSS feeds), and offline viewing, where a client on a painfully slow dial-up connection could download and cache the resources required to display complex web pages.
Microsoft did this via an explicit web manifest; the web page author needed to list all of the resources they wanted to use in offline or pre-cache mode.
Netscape tried to do this by urging web authors to Be Very Careful with the links on a page, which usually required a specially-crafted offline-crawler-only version of the site. Predicably, hilarity ensued.
The term of art at the time was "push technology" or "web push", the irony of which was not lost upon those tasked with making it work.
Microsoft did this via an explicit web manifest; the web page author needed to list all of the resources they wanted to use in offline or pre-cache mode.
Netscape tried to do this by urging web authors to Be Very Careful with the links on a page, which usually required a specially-crafted offline-crawler-only version of the site. Predicably, hilarity ensued.
The term of art at the time was "push technology" or "web push", the irony of which was not lost upon those tasked with making it work.
1997. Good times.