A fierce battle is brewing on the World Wide Web. It is a battle for the hearts, minds -- and pocketbooks - of the world's information consumers. Publishers, portals and other content and audience owners are desperately searching for business models which produce real revenues.

In one corner are the traditional "old" publishers of newspapers, periodicals, journals, music, film and software. Control of distribution has been the traditional competitive defense in the "old" publishing, software and entertainment world. But the Internet is making distribution a commodity for non-physical products. CD-ROMs, videotapes, cassettes and printed editions give way to high-bandwidth, on demand delivery, requiring new marketing and payment forms.

In the other corner, are the "new" audience aggregators - both Internet portals and "virtual" merchants -- and traditional enterprises like banks, telcos, utilities, retailers and affinity groups. They suddenly have the potential to exploit something of enormous value -- credit relationships with millions of information consumers. The Internet could allow these "new" audience aggregators - some now stuck in large but well-defined niches such as banking and utility services -- to take on a new role as "home ports" for all kinds of purchasing, including digital information.

Both sides are searching for a way to win, a way to attract new users, or keep from losing the ones they already have. They need a way to increase the range of services and products they offer their readers, users and customers. They need to be able to serve as the gateway for more of their users' information and service needs. Increasingly, they realize that advertising alone will not support their online efforts.

They need an application of Internet technology which allows companies to sell digital information to each other's customers without having to share the names, addresses or credit data of those customers. The Clickshare Service avoids the need for a single shared or centrally controlled account database, while facilitating sharing of "anonymous" demographics for marketing or other purposes. With such technology, competitors can have a level playing field to compete on product, pricing and service across new markets and even new continents.

This "distributed user management service" is available today from Clickshare Service Corp. Clickshare has developed patent-pending technology that facilitates small, incremental purchases on the web. A unique feature also vendors to receive the demographics of individuals using their sites -- without having access to the user's name. Clickshare allows a consumer to register once with any Clickshare-enabled site, yet acquire information and receive personalized service from many web sites.

"Distributed user management service" describes an application of Internet technology which allows companies to sell information, software and other intangible objects to each other's customers without having to share the names, addresses or credit data of those customers. Applications employing this process avoid the need for a single centrally controlled account database, while facilitating sharing of "anonymous" demographics for marketing or other purposes. Using Clickshare, users register once with a "home base", but acquire services and information from independent web sites with one-bill, one-ID simplicity and a high level of privacy.