Push

(1) In client/server applications, to send data to a client without the client requesting it. The World Wide Web is based on a pull technology where the client browser must request a Web page before it is sent. Broadcast media, on the other hand, are push technologies because they send information out regardless of whether anyone is tuned in.

Increasingly, companies are using the Internet to deliver information push-style. Probably the oldest and most widely used push technology is e-mail. This is a push technology because you receive mail whether you ask for it or not — that is, the sender pushes the message to the receiver.

(2) In programming, to place a data item onto a stack. The opposite of push is pop, which means to remove an object from a stack.