Yay! No spyware.

Congrats on the 1000 sign-ups. Your extended referral ratio must be very nice. I run a website with 450k visitors/day and linked it once in my update and made like 50 sign-ups. Of course I got totally the wrong traffic for such a program, but it’s a good example what targeted traffic is all about.

Besides that I like your blog and I’m almost every day here. Keep up the good work!

bye
cayne

John,
Stop posting these blatant attempts to get people to signup to AGLOCO using your referral link. The idea of AGLOCO is garbage - you dont even know what the shares are worth and its so obvious every post you make is just to add your referral link at the bottom. Seriously, give it up. I don’t read your blog for crap like this.

- Mark

Sounds great. When will the viewbar be available to download?

Mark - One of the thing my blog covers is how to make money on the Internet. This is one of the ways. And when I have new information about it, I will post it.

Gdog - I don’t have a firm answer on when the Viewbar will be available other than “very soon.”

[...] John Chow just posted another update on the status of AGLOCO after speaking to one of founders. Apparently the bar will contain no spyware…something we couldn’t say with AllAdvantage. This should come as a relief to many who thought the bar would contain spyware on top of showing us ads. [...]

Awesome, no spyware will definitely be a reason why a ton of my friends will now sign up for AGLOCO. Thanks John!

1 Hour Of Surf Time = 1 AGLOCO Share

Do you think this will be viable for a business… ???

I mean, do you think that even talking about this is viable???

If this is the point — then what’s the point — it will only harass me, and btw i don’t like ads like most of people don’t…. that is maybe the point why AllAdvantage got broke…

1 Hour Of Surf Time = 1 AGLOCO Share

=====

A MAJOR TURN DOWN

It’s like i’m pitching MLM products and i receive
some dummy IOU’s ….

sorry John for my skepticism, but i don’t want to be harassed by some flashing advertising and receive nothing for it… at least when i see some ads on website i know AM GETTING SOME VALUE ALREADY when i use website service …. i.e. AGLOCO IS NOT JohnChow.com, AGLOCO IS NOT Google.com, AGLOCO IS NOT Reddit.com, AGLOCO has no value in return that i can’t find ANYWHERE ELSE….

john,

this post makes me scared dude!!
whatever..

“No Spyware” is such bullshit. It is literally spyware! That’s exactly how it works - spy on your surfing, show ads based on its spying.

Mayo - It really depends on how fast the network grows. In order to attract advertisers it needs to grow really fast. AllAdvantage got to 10 million members in 18 months.

If they can build a big enough user base, the company will be worth money even if it makes nothing. Look at YouTube. A money losing video sharing site that was constantly under the threat of copyright lawsuits. Yet it gets sold for $1.65 billion because of the size of its user base.

Carl - By your definition, the Google toolbar I’m running is spyware. I’m fine with that.

I must say, John, you’re making a noticable increase in your blogging output. That should boost your blog enough without digg *thumbs up*

Google toolbar is spyware, Alexa toolbar is spyware. If you’re OK with that, then fine! Not saying anything.. But to say that their bar isn’t spyware is bullshit.

There’s a reason most people won’t touch Google bar, Alexa bar, and this.

Install it all you want. But don’t tell people it’s not spyware

I have no problem saying it’s not spyware because I know the true definition of spyware. If case you want to learn it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware

Or you can just keep on pretending your answer is the right one. I’m fine with that.

John, congrats on cracking 1000 referrals. After reading about this on numerous sites, I signed up as one and have put out a post and a few notes to people I know. So far, I have absolutely 0 other signups but am still plugging away.

Wow, you got to 1000 people pretty quickly. Thanks for doing the research on this; it’s very helpful.

Wish I could still digg your articles b/c this would be a definite digg!

The only difference is that you are consenting to giving your information away. So while it isn’t by Wikipedia’s definition of the term, it still “spies” on your activity.

Maybe it’s just because the term ’spyware’ has such a negative connotation, nobody wants to be associate with it. But let’s tell it like it is; Agloco (and Google toolbar, Alexa, and All Advantage) is nothing more than giving consent to have your browsing ’spied’ on. Maybe there is a better term to use, but if there is I don’t know it. So I just call it spyware. Consensual spyware, but spyware nonetheless.

That’s how they can make money. Getting people to give up their privacy is worth a lot! That’s why Agloco has potential, and why Google pays $10 if you can get someone to use their toolbar.

This stuff might be about making money on the Internet, but this really drifts away from normal stuff. I do not think you are doing yourself a favor writing about this junk. What comes next? Promoting so-called “Opt-in” Email programs? Write about arbitrage, Adsense, YPN, real affiliate programs, SEO, and so, but this stuff makes me stay away from your blog. Sorry, John - but I think you are on the wrong track here.

Christoph

[...] You read his article here. Oh and John has over 1000 referrals now. Like 500 in 3 days. I got 3 maybe? [...]

Spyware is spyware

My good friends Ed, Stephen, and John have hopped on the “All Advantage 2.0″ bandwagon (also known as Agloco) with a force. John has the perfect readership of people who want more than anything to make money on the internet, so he has alrea…

It’s pretty much voluntary surveillance (aka consensual spyware). Just know what you are installing before installing it by getting enough information to satisfy your privacy concerns. Give it some thought and don’t be a lemming. If you install it, you give up your privacy, just like any other toolbar. Some people don’t need much when they are being told to sign up, install software, surf 5 hours, get rich. That’s a very powerful marketing message. If privacy is of no concern to you, then it’s an easy one.

I guess “official” name is call Adware. You can call it spyware because you already know it’s tracking your surfing in order to serve the ads. Spying by definition means you are not ware of this. Also spyware has no uninstall feature, or even an install feature since in almost every case, spyware is installed without you knowing. That’s why it’s SPYware.

NSUSA - I write about stuff that has worked for me. I’ve done this before. I made money at it. The people I signed up made money at it. Ask anyone who has ever been in AllAdvantage if they lost money at it or got ripped off. You won’t find any. That’s a pretty good deal.

Of course, I will continue to write about Google, SEO and all the other good stuff. However, when there is news about AGLOCO, I’m going to write about it.

[...] Well they’re making a comeback and AGLOCO is one of them. There’s a few others , but I signed up with AGLOCO. They seem the most credible. Well the scheme basically works by you downloading their ‘viewbar’. You of course need to install it. You can have my assurance it is NOT a spyware. You can check out this post for more. [...]

Adware is defined differently. It is software with ads in it. That same software may or may not track usage, but that’s not what makes it spyware or adware.

Spyware tracks usage. Adware shows ads. Some do btoh, such as Agloco. The difference is, they give you shares of their company in exchange (which brings me to something else they might have up their sleeves. I’ll get into it more after I do some research).

Spyware also steals passwords, invade your hard drive, delete files and can’t be un-installed. And you don’t even know it got installed. That’s where the “spy” came from.

The bottom line is this. Everything the Viewbar tracks will be clearly spelled out in the privacy statement. If you’re OK with it, then go for it. If you’re not, then don’t install it, or any other toolbar for that matter.

You know, just by visiting my blog I know your IP address, what OS your run, whether you have a Mac or PC, your screen resolution, what part of the world you from, I know what page you came in by and I know what page you left by. Does this mean I’m spying on you? Does this make all website spyware?

I already posted a link to what spyware is and based on that I can say without a doubt the AGLOCO Viewbar is not spyware.

It’s all about how much info you want to give up. We all know that we’re giving up our IP, country, OS, browser info when we visit a site. So we all decide that’s worth the risk (or if not, some use a proxy).

And when you use Gmail or Google’s toolbar, you know you are allowing them to spider words in the emails, etc. Some people feel this is too invasive, some don’t.

Then you have the Algoco bar, which reads the sites you go to, tracks usage, time of day, spending habits, where you shop, when you shop, what kind of forums you go to, and probably stuff I don’t even think of. They take that info and use it to sell ads, and give it to other partners of theirs, in order to increase the value of their company.

It’s not like I am saying Algoco is stealing passwords and deleting files.. I don’t think you understand what exactly spyware is. But hopefully I have made the point clearly by now. Algoco tracks usage, uses it to make a profit. Now whether you want to give that up in exchange for shares in their company is totally up to you. I am just pointing out what may not be obvious when you read their fluffy FAQ pages or interviews like the one this guy gave you.

Here’s my analysis of the situation should AGLOCO actually become big and go public. The company will receive money from advertisers on their adbar. After subtracting expenses, lets say their income is $1 million per month. Assume that everyone who was going to get the adbar got it, and that number is 10 million people. If there are 10 million people in the network, each getting 5 shares + their referral shares, thats going to be more than 50 million shares. In month two, the number of shares will double because everyone surfed another 5 hours that month. Since the growth has now stagnated, the advertisers aren’t going to pay any more to advertise to the same 10 million people, so income stays the same, $1 million. This goes on and on with shares increasing much faster than ad revenues. At some point a limit will be reached where shares become worthless, and people will just want to opt for the cash. Well now you have to divide $1million by 10 million people, and everyone basically gets $1/month unless they have a big network. The big network guys could make a ton of cash if they have a lot of people signed up. This could go on for a couple months, until the small network leaders realize that its not worth having an adbar up since they are only earning $1.75 a month any way. The site will probably make the minimum cash out something like $20, so who wants to run ads on their browser just for a $20 check every other year. Now you’ll see the networks start to shrink until even the former big network guys are only making a few bucks.
The bottom line is this. No matter how you try to spin it, these types of pyramid business plans will never work. I don’t doubt that they will try. They might even make a few people with big networks like John Chow rich for a few months, but I guarentee you that this will not become a long term success.

That last comment is gold. All this is is a pyramid scheme where the people at the top get rich and the people at the bottom get little or nothing.

I paid good money for my 19″ screen, im not decreasing it by an inch to make somone else a few dollars a month.

I must admit I thought differently to begin with, but the sign up i gave you john wont be getting any hours. Sorry.

PS, launching when the Viewbar wasn’t even ready was a BIG mistake, they’ve already lost loads of people that signed up as they’ll forget and never go back. Plus, why is the Viewbar going through so much beta testing? My guess would be vulernabilities and crashing bugs - doesn;t inspire confidence.

That’s for sure…. people are picky … now if i got $10 to $15 a month, eve $5 that would be great, but anything below $5 for watching flashing commercials on my screen for 5 hours * 25 to 30 days is obnoxious , if i personally won’t earn these $5 bucks, then it will go to RecycleBin oblivion permanently.

Mayo - It’s 5 hours a month, not 5 hours a day.

Lynx - A pyramid scheme is illegal.

How To Buy Websites - I think your assumptions are wrong but we’ll see. As for “pyramid” type business never working. Amway is still around. So is Nuskin. They’re multi-billion businesses too.

I couldn’t disagree more with the characterization of the Viewbar as spyware. In my experience, spyware has four main characteristics: 1) It’s installed without your permission; 2) It surreptitiously tracks you; 3) it is difficult if not impossible to turn off or remove; and, 4) it sends your information to an unknown and untrustworthy entity where you have no control over what happens to it.

AGLOCO’s Viewbar (nor AllAdvantage’s Viewbar before it) does not have those characteristics. Indeed, AGLOCO’s Viewbar is the opposite of spyware: you must actively install it, you have to turn it on in order for it to track you and earn your hours, you can easily turn it off and uninstall at will, and finally you know who’s tracking you and our Privacy Policy gives you explicit information about what happens with your data and how you can delete it from our system if you desire.

I know a thing or two about spyware: I was an expert witness in a series of twelve lawsuits in which I testified against one of the major perpetrators of spyware on the Internet. They actually hired me in part because of my experiences at AllAdvantage with permission-based and privacy-protecting advertising technologies like the Viewbar.

If you’re interested (or can’t sleep!) you can read brief excerpts from my 80-page expert witness report (the whole report is, unfortunately, under seal by the federal court). I submitted the excerpts when I testified at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Workshop on Spyware in 2004. My written materials are at: http://www.ftc.gov/os/comments/spyware/040319everett-church.pdf .

I hope that helps clarify things a bit more.

Regards,
Ray Everett-Church
AGLOCO Chief Privacy Officer

Congrats to John on the 1,000 sign up. It’s remarkable considering the short time in which he achieved it. Well, I finally succeeded in getting 1 referral! For all the criticism about AGLOCO I personally don’t mind giving it a try. As long as I am not putting my money why should I worry?

Regards,
Vinay

[...] Ray Everett-Church is AGLOCO’s Chief Privacy Officer. He was also the Chief Privacy Officer of AllAdvantage. Ray has been reading the comments in the 1000 AGLOCO Sign Ups post and this is what he has to say about the spyware issue. I couldn’t disagree more with the characterization of the Viewbar as spyware. In my experience, spyware has four main characteristics: 1) It’s installed without your permission; 2) It surreptitiously tracks you; 3) it is difficult if not impossible to turn off or remove; and, 4) it sends your information to an unknown and untrustworthy entity where you have no control over what happens to it. [...]

Congrats on the first 1,000;) I’m of yours, too. Thanks for bringing up good ideas;)

I think they should release the ViewBar as OpenSource, so there would be no doubt about if it’s spyware or not. Everyone interested can check out and examine the source code. That would build big trust and eliminate the spyware fears.

John,

The numbers I used are just made up. This company will work as long as the number of users is constantly increasing at an alarming rate. Once that torrid growth stops however will be when the whole thing stalls out.

I signed up. I am going to try to recruit everyone that I can to use this thing. But at some point that new recruitment growth will stop. This will happen when the people at the bottom can’t get any of their buddies to sign up because everyone they know already has an account. How much do you think advertisers are going to pay for an adbar at the bottom of your screen for 5 hours/month? $1? $5? Whatever it is, that will be the upper limit that any one user can get paid without signing up any referrals. Actually it will be quite a bit less than that because of company expenses and the commissions to be paid to 4-5 recruitment levels above him. They probably won’t be paying out less than $20 at a time, and I would guess most people won’t keep the adbar around if they have to wait 4 months or more for a paltry $20 check. Once they stop using the adbar, that will affect the people who making money off them. If the recruiters lose too many recruits, then they will be less inclined to continue the recruiting effort. The whole thing will probably go through a large expansion (its nice that you have gotten in early) and then a contraction. At this point growth will stop. I guess there could be a steady churn at the bottom to keep the big recruiters making money. I assume that this is how Amway does it.

Just how big is this ad bar?

I do agree with the above comment, however, MLM, nextwork marketing, direct sales, is one of the fastest growing buisnesses models around, and they continue to, most of them stay in business.

Although, just like cars, there will always be new people on the internet. Yes, ideally if it got to that point, but it probably won’t ever will. PPL in other foreign countries, with ur assumptions, its good, but it’d only work till almost everyone in the world has internet, and how long would that take, 100 more years maybe?

Although I think I might have to chk it out, maybe signup thru john i guess, i found it on here, so whatever

[...] Denn ein Problem damals war ganz klar, dass man bei dieser Art Service bloß eine Bannerrotation bekommen hat die natürlich keine Sau interessiert hat. Was mir Agloco ein wenig unsympathisch macht ist der MLM Aufbau. Denn natürlich soll man neue Mitglieder werben und bekommt für deren gesurfte Zeit ebenfalls einen kleinen Obulus. Deshalb wird das ganze natürlich umso interessanter wenn man so wie John Chow mal locker 1000 Mitglieder wirbt. [...]

I think another point that the skeptics are missing is the income potential AGLOCO could achieve. If enough people sign-up and have the Viewbar operating on their computer, then it could become a standard vehichle for advertisers, just like a Sponsored Link from Yahoo or a radio commercial. These forms of advertising require big dollars and AGLOCO does not appear to have much in the way of administrative costs. I will admit there are a number of things that could go wrong.

I look at the AGLOCO situation a little differently than most people, in that I can’t help but think about Google, Yahoo and Microsoft (assuming they ever release AdCenter) and how a successful AGLOCO could really damage their business model for online advertising. Assume for a moment that AGLOCO does become very popular and a whole bunch of surfers run the Viewbar. Then you will begin to have the large corporate advertisers showing up, companies like Sony and Apple. Won’t this begin to pull away the dollars that these same advertisers direct online to individual websites? I believe a successful AGLOCO is a direct threat to Google especially, maybe not one that is a killer, but certainly one that could take away money and customers. I predict AGLOCO will do well.

[...] I was having a telephone chat with the founder of AGLOCO last night and he pointed me to a story in InfowWorld about Microsoft’s plan to share search engine revenue with their users. Gates said that search engines like Google Inc. get their revenues from advertising because people use these search engines. “Google’s business model is not based on free software,” Gates said. “Their business model is based on advertisements from which they make a lot of money.” [...]

[...] Here’s a little update on my weekend chat with AGLOCO founder, Akshay Mavani. I wasn’t able to get all my questions answered due to time constraint. You can imagine how busy AK must be at this point of the company’s life and I would like to thank him for taking time out to talk to me. We will get setting up another call this weekend to get the rest of my questions answered. Here are the highlights of the chat. [...]

Hey guys

Well I’m on day 2 of my adventure. Check out an AGLOCO network build from the ground up at http://www.aglocotest.com. Thanks

Paul

Just an interesting point. OK, let’s assume agloco will become big. The scenario that it will be bought by google or yahoo or another big business is wrong. Why?
The big business have the brand and financial power to get hundreds of thousands of members (in a matter of days) with their high traffic sites (imagine signing up under google referral) and they will quickly became owner of the majority of the shares… Isn’t this a possible scenario?

And something else. Why no cookie is saved with the Agloco referral id? What if the referred person decide to signup later?

Dear friends,

Check out FREE Agloco Video “How-To” tutorials on http://www.aglocovideo.com. You guys can use the videos to promote your downlines. Thanks.