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EDMONTON, Canada – October 22, 2003 – ToolButton Inc. today released version 1.5 of ToolButton that incorporates a message delivery system allowing marketers to communicate with users in a manner similar to that of email. California has recently signed into law an Anti-Spam bill that severely limits the ability for marketers to use email to communicate with end users – irregardless of the permissions that may exist. California’s SB 186 goes into effect January 1, 2004 and will effectively curtail a large portion of commercial email advertisements sent to or from the state. The intent of the law is to prevent spam but the unintended result is harmful to reputable webmasters, list managers and brokers. ToolButton resolves the legislative conundrum by providing a delivery channel that is like email – but not email. Text, HTML and rich media formatted messages can be sent to users who have installed the ToolButton toolbar. However, because the message is not transmitted by SMTP email, the California law does not apply. The advantage to users is control. Users cannot be sent unsolicited messages and can remove the ability of the sender to communicate if the messages are not appropriate. ToolButton is an Internet Explorer browser enhancement that includes a search bar for 50+ search engines. It provides users with a delivery channel to obtain content from their favorite websites by adding “toolbuttons”. These are pipelines to dynamic and static content from websites of the user’s choice. A ToolButton can include news content, dynamic feeds, blogs, RSS content and menus of important URLs - all available at the click of a button. "The impending California legislation clearly has good intentions but is directed at the wrong parties. The new law will not stop off shore spammers but will scare legitimate marketers from dealing with users who have clearly indicated they want newsletters, bulletins and other commercial messages", said Dale Janssen, Chief Idea Creator and President of ToolButton Inc. “The advantage of messaging with ToolButton is that both users and marketers win”. ToolButton is free for users. Availability Users and Web Masters wishing to install the ToolButton software may freely download the software at www.toolbutton.com. The software includes the ToolButton toolbar and a series of default buttons to demonstrate the flexibility of the software. Users can install ToolButton on computers at home and the office and have their personalized toolbar available by creating a User account once.
About ToolButton Inc. ToolButton Inc. (formerly DotComVest Ltd - http://www.dotcomvest.com) is the publisher and holding company of Information Technology orientated web sites including:
Contact: Deb Alloway Business Development Manager ToolButton Inc. 505, College Plaza 8215 – 112 Street Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6G 2C8 780.702.1416 x101
