Google squelches Sharogle

Google has killed a valiant effort by a company that wanted to let you partake of Google’s profits.

Until six days ago, a company called Sharogle was giving you a portion of the ad revenue Google gets from your searches.

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It let you create an account and then start searching the web from within Sharogle’s site — and start making money.

It was working great. Essentially, it would give you a portion of the referral fee it was getting from Google, by acting like any other publisher. It ran AdSense-looking links beneath the white-labeled Googlely search box and above the Googlely web search results.

You could cash out at $10 with PayPal and at $25 with check. Alas, it was too good to last. Google stopped running ads on the site six days ago. Sharogle says it is looking for other partners.

Sharogle has made its point. In its FAQ, it says “.. people who contribute to the success of any company should be able to earn a portion of the revenues, which is why we share revenues with users.”

But, oh Sharogle, how much money could one possibly make? “The overall success of the company will determine the amount of money you make. For the sake of justification some of the top search engines make billions of dollars per year.”

And, how does Sharogle make money? Why, “from sponsored results just like all search engines do. It’s a proven and reliable business model.”

Amazon similarly pulled the plug on Zlio’s populist scheme, where that company collected a referral fee from Amazon for sending over users, then split the fee with those users. However, Zlio has been able to grow its model with other partners, and just closed another round of funding. We’re not sure that Sharogle has such a free-standing business.

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