Agloco, which launched recently in beta, is a new service that plans to link up companies which are looking users and traffic and users who are willing to put up with ads and such things. Of course, there’s an incentive – companies pay Agloco, who in return pay their users. We’ve all heard of those ’get paid for filling out surveys’ services, and Agloco, appropriately, is a proven Web 2.0 version.
How It Works
Agloco works like so. You sign up for the service and obtain the Agloco Viewbar, which is a toolbar that includes a search engine and other services — proving as money makers for Agloco. Invite as many people as you can (and if possible, encourage them to invite others), and surf away. As you, your friends, and who they invite, accumulate ’surfing hours,’ that gets translated into Agloco shares at the end of the month (i.e. owning a peace of Agloco), which then results in you getting money from Agloco.
The basic idea? As you use the service, Agloco makes money from things like its search function, advertising, and distributing/introducing its users to software, services, products, and a share of that money is translated back to the users.
Opinion
Agloco is one of those ideas which I think looks great on paper but doesn’t get translated too well. It’s a bit too complex, but the biggest problem with it, I think, is some of the concerns it might face due to its border-line ’shaky’ concepts. Is it right to split a revenue share from individuals who clicked on your ad in the first place? Also, I can see how some people might try and game the system — fake referrals, robotic ’surfing hours,’ you name it. In the end, I think Agloco is a bit like spyware which you get a split out of — sure, it’s better than regular spyware, but it’s still spyware.
