Pay-to-Surf Buzz - An Agloco Review

Agloco is the newest kid on the pay-to-surf neighbourhood. Looking all Web 2.0-ish, Agloco allows you to make money by running a small toolbar on your screen while you surf the net normally. Earnings are accumulated over time while the viewbar is working.

Agloco is still in a Beta stage and their viewbar is not available for download. According to their website, it’ll be up in a couple of weeks. However pre-promotion for Agloco has begun furiously over the net. I’ve noticed their presence on dozens of forums, Adwords and numerous social bookmarking websites like Digg and Furl.

Here’s a screenshot and description of Agloco’s viewbar, taken from their website. The viewbar is docked right at the bottom of the screen, above the Window’s taskbar.

“The Viewbar is a small toolbar that rests on the bottom of your screen or browser window while you surf the Internet. The Viewbar software is what enables AGLOCO to collect the money you are earning while browsing the Internet.

Some people have asked: Is the Viewbar some kind of spyware The answer is simple: The Viewbar is the opposite of spyware…Unlike spyware, the Viewbar is completely permission based, it keeps your information private, and you can always turn it off with a single click.

The Viewbar also has many additional features:

* Search (which lets us get you money from search engine companies)
* Contextual ads (which lets us get you money from advertisers)
* Anti-fraud and other software utilities (which lets us get you money from software companies)”

DOSH DOSH REVIEW

My primary concern is the privacy issue.. what information is collected and how is it used? Agloco’s privacy policy offers a clear explanation:

“We do not give, sell, rent, share, or trade any identifiable personal information regarding our members with any third party, with the exception of third party contractors or service providers who work with AGLOCO� to provide this service. All parties with whom we contract for such services are strictly prohibited by the terms of those contracts from any other use of the information.”

Nothing extraordinarily malicious, at least when it comes to pay-to-surf programs, which often record basic surfing information for advertisers. The privacy policy has more to say about this issue so do take a look at the full document here.

A few things stand out about Agloco. Firstly, that members can only accumulate up to a maximum of five hours usage of the Viewbar. This means that you can’t leave it on for over 10 hours a day, everyday. I do find it strange that there’s a limit to the number of hours.

Secondly, Agloco allows you to earn shares alongside cash when you use the viewbar. If shares are issued they will issued at one share per hour for Member hours and one quarter share for each referral hour.

This allows members to have shared ownership of Agloco. The benefits of such a setup is ambiguous. Does one actually get a share of ad revenues? How does it actually work?

Agloco doesn’t go into further detail at the moment, perhaps understandably because it is still brand new at the moment.

Whats Cool

• Ability to earn shares and cash
• Choice of donating cash or shares earned directly to charities
• Wide initial membership base - potential for Agloco growth
• Double Tier Referral Program

Whats Not

• Legitimacy - Yet to confirm if Agloco pays.
• Limit on time usage of the Viewbar
• Uncertain earning potential - Viewbar rates not defined.

Verdict

I’ve never had much interest in pay-to-surf programs after reading about dreadful scams like SurfJunky and CashFiesta, both of which I would not dignify with an outlink. For the above programs, users would surf tediously until they’ve reached the payout rate, wherein they would be disqualified and accused of tampering with the toolbar or surfing policies.

What makes Agloco different from the rest? There’s no definitive answer at the moment as Agloco’s worth can only be discerned over time. Will it end up like the other pay-to-surfs? Or will it actually be a profitable venture for end-users? I guess only time will tell.

My take on Agloco is this. If it’s really a scam, you would only have wasted some time in promoting their program. If it actually turns out to be profitable, you will be rewarded for your efforts in pushing their program. You really have very little to lose and possibly a lot to gain. If you’re interested in testing out Agloco, do consider signing up under my referral link.