It made use of the Channel Definition Format, which was designed to "offer frequently updated collections of information, or channels, from any web server for automatic delivery to compatible receiver programs.
"[1] Microsoft unveiled the Active Channel component as part of an Internet Explorer 4.0 preview release in July 1997,[2] and brought out the final version with the launch of the 4.0 browser in September that year.
[3] Most Active Channels were provided by bigger entertainment and news companies like Disney, WB or AOL and also made heavy use of DHTML (Dynamic HTML).
Channel defaults varied by country/region, and were controlled by the choice of country/region during the installation of Internet Explorer 4 (and therefore Windows 98).
Active Channel support was removed from Internet Explorer in version 7,[4] as it had been superseded by the more popular and standards-based RSS format.