Hotbar.com Inc., which makes the online experience more enjoyable and efficient by turning the Web browser into a dynamic, personalized browser, today announced the formal launch of its new Web site. Hotbar.com's plug-in, based on Microsoft's ActiveX open architecture programming technology, makes the browser more visually appealing and adds features not found on any other Internet browser. At the same time, it retains the familiar interface and standard functionality.
Hotbar.com's compact plug-in is available free of charge from the Hotbar.com Web site and is compatible with the Internet Explorer browser, used by more than half of Internet users worldwide. The company is actively developing a version that will be compatible with Netscape browsers.
"We are excited to be the first company to offer Internet users such a significant enhancement to their Web browsers," said Hotbar.com co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Oren Dobronsky. "The standard browser interface is a very boring gray color, and takes up 20 percent of the total screen area. We let people customize their computers, making them more interesting to look at and more fun to use."
Hotbar.com allows users to add "skins" that quickly and easily customize the appearance of the Web browser. The skin is overlaid on top of the interface and does not affect normal operations. More than 1,000 different colorful and artistic skins in a variety of categories are available now, with more to be added to the site's Skin Gallery regularly. They can be easily catalogued and retrieved through Hotbar.com's skins management function.
Hotbar.com browser skins may be sent via e-mail in the same manner as standard electronic greeting cards. Recipients are linked to the Hotbar.com site and prompted to activate the plug-in to view and use the skin. Each skin e-mailed enters the sender into a monthly random drawing for a $1,000 prize.
Individuals as well as companies may create skins in standard bitmap format using their own artwork and photographs. They can then be e-mailed privately to friends and family, posted on the creator's Web site, or submitted to Hotbar.com's Skin Gallery for anyone to use. Each month, one skin selected by the company's Design Committee as the most creative will be featured on Hotbar.com as the month's grand prizewinner, with the creator awarded a $1,000 prize.
"We let people add familiar personal photos or comforting images to their computers. These photos and images will then be visible whenever the Web browser is open," said Hotbar.com co-Founder and executive VP Gabriella Karni, who is also a licensed psychotherapist. "This way, people won't be sitting alone while surfing the Web, but will have a constant reminder of a loved one or a favorite place with them."
In addition to being the first company to bring skins to a mainstream Internet audience, Hotbar.com also turns what is otherwise unused space on the browser into a dynamic toolbar that contains a number of enhancements. As a result, Internet users are given many helpful new features that cannot be found on any other Web browser that make the Internet experience significantly more efficient.
Among Hotbar.com's enhancements is a "Top 10" Links button with a pull-down menu featuring more than 2,500 leading Web sites and portals in 250 different categories. These "Top 10" Links, which let Internet users experience "One-Click Browsing," are preselected, qualified sites chosen because of their overall popularity and usefulness. Unlike other browsers' "channels," Hotbar.com's "Top 10" Links are continually reviewed and dynamically updated.
Additionally, the contents of any Web page can be instantly translated into one of eight different languages through a direct link to AltaVista's powerful Web-based translation software. Hotbar.com is in the process of developing additional services to be added in the future.
"Internet users can benefit from any or all of these features without leaving the Web page they may be visiting or their familiar browser environment," noted Dobronsky. "We call this concept a `Portable Portal,' and are convinced that people will want to keep their newly customized interface with them wherever they surf on the Web."
The user-friendly Hotbar.com plug-in is simple and safe to use. Both the plug-in and skins graphics files are extremely compact. Activation of the 100-kilobyte plug-in takes only a few seconds even at slower modem speeds. The skins files, at only 40 kilobytes each, are easily and quickly retrieved.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on December 7, 1999.