How to get desktop research tool distributed?

We are in the process of creating a desktop research tool, which will provide snappy access to a wide range of information.

Conceptually, this tool is similar to Babylon. How would you go about getting such a tool distributed, I believe we know all the standard ways like:

• Paying someone to bundle
• Advertising


• Distributing with magazines
• Affiliate models
• etc.

So what we are after are alternative ways. Some of the ideas we are considering are:

• Making the software bloated with features and applying the OEM model I asked about here.
• Making it into plugins (Firefox, Internet Explorer), so it could get distributed via many channels

Do you have any other ideas or recommendations?

Well a lot of it depends on where you money is coming from.

If your charging

• The end user (per click, per month, per X). Then you need a starting market base of key users and respond to their needs, encorange them to pass the word on, targeted advertising to key market segments.
• Advertisers to contact the end user (impressions/clicks for targeted user base). Then you need as many paths to adoption as you can, capturing users with their data.
• Company to extend their functional offering. Then you key sales people who can open the right doors and pitch the concept to the key players who will pay.

The strategies aren't mutually exclusive, you can attack several at once but your focus will depend on your revenue model ... unless you have someone prepared to pay for 18 months of giving it away in the hope you get into the multi-millions of unique visitors a day / week ... those eyeballs alone are worth a lot to the right buyer.