For many organisations the first step in creating an Internet community is ensuring that content is easily accessible by members. The Kool Bar achieves this by providing unique, easy to use entry point for the community.

The Kool Bar Web Interface is a small application that delivers powerful access to web based resources from a user’s PC desktop. By installing the Kool Bar on a home or business PC the user immediately becomes a registered and valued community member and can be provided with fast, simplified access to specific web based information. In addition the Kool Bar can provide tailored advertising and sponsorship directly to the community in an unobtrusive manner.

The Kool Bar consists of a fully customisable HTML ‘bar’ that is displayed at the bottom of any Internet Explorer (version 4.0 or greater) browser window and at the bottom of any File Manager directory window. Within the Kool Bar the owner or administrator of the community (or organisation) can display and hyperlink to any web based data. Links may include access to password protected Internet / Intranet sites / access gateways, third party web site information or access to other common Internet / HTML options and applications, such as specialist Internet search engines or access to data streams such as currency feeds, stock values or news. The content and design of the Kool Bar can be customised by the community administrator at the time of creation.

When the Kool Bar Interface is first installed, user registration is required. This is performed on-line and can be tailored to collect any form of registration data required by the community administrator. In most cases registration of the software forms the act of joining the community. In addition to providing an accurate database of community membership, registration can also be customised to collect valuable demographic information. By collecting demographics a community administrator can enable Content Based Routing (CBR), a feature of the Kool Bar that directs specific content to community members, based on the demographics provided.