Update (11/15/00) - Surfbar had to be discontinued to regain lost revenue, I suppose. No more potentially FREE service from SurFree ;-(. But it still offers competitive monthly fee of 14.95 and free 1st month. And you can still grab $50 commission for introducing friends to the service.

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Surfree.com was actually the (passive) pioneer of free internet, founded in Summer '97 and launched on Feb '98, before NetZero or FreeI had even made their mark in ISP territory. The noble idea was already there with its "free" suffix, just that, it was charging 14.95 per month (it still does, sort of), which was a very good deal back then, when most ISPs were charging around $20 or more for unlimited access. Following massive popularity of FREE ISPs like NetZero, FreeI, Yahoo/Excite/Lycos/Altavista etc, and all kind of co-branded ones (ie. powered by 1stUp.com), or paid-to-surf programs like AllAdvantage, GotoWorld etc, in Fall '99, Surfree begins to offer discounts for viewing ads, up to the full $14.95 monthly fee!

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE/OBSERVATION ON SURFREE

I had a chance to use Surfree as my dial-up provider for a few months, beginning May'99. Overall the quality (performance, reliability, support) was at par with most commercial ISPs (EarthLink, MSN etc) - very few disconnect, high speed up to 50K; and as you're paying for unlimited access, you're at peace of mind to leave it connected 24/7 while still paying no more than 50 cents a day. The subscription comes with free email account(s), access to 72,000 newsgroups, 12MB webspace, 24/7 toll-free and email support, unlimited email accounts, free 1st month, $50 referral reward, comprehensive privacy policy, free software & coupons and more... Its email support looks good, with responses within 48 hours.

A bit of history

Back then, Surfree.com was really ambitious, delivering a website to serve as a powerful ala-portal community center. The company tried to deliver everything, assuming that the $15-per-person subscription fee can cover all their development and maintenance cost. It even complicated its reward program by introducing Surfbucks point system. Well, as we all know now, it's a wild jungle out there - Surfree had to face competitions from all corner - powerful ISPs like AOL, MSN, EarthLink/MindSpring that have mailed out installation CDs to almost all 250 millions US residents; established portals like Yahoo, Excite, Lycos that provide pretty much everything one needs - email account, webspace, discussion center, information, web navigation etc, and; dozens new ISPs, especially the ones equipped with "free internet" banner that pop up every month.

It's been a while since I last look into the company, simply because, my city has finally been blessed with broadband - cable & DSL. Anyway, the real incentive for me to try Surfree last year was its $20-money-back promotion, and bounty (referral) bonus of additional $20. I then migrated to EarthLink for its "3-month for a dollar" promotion and MSN 1-month free, more reasons for me to evaluate all these ISPs - I'm a fanatic at trying: to date, I've tried over two dozen ISPs in the past 8 years. Back in June '99, Surfree announced its plan to roll out the familiar ad-bar that would let its members save some more dough every month. A few months later, the product was out, and looks like it has a potential to be a winner...

Now...

Today, Surfree.com has trimmed and simplify its website into a simple marketing and support for its free/discounted internet access offerring - a very good move, I suppose. It outsources other added-bonus offering, for instance, webspace to HomeStead.com, email to Critical Path (traded as CPTH) and advertising from AdSmart Network. BTW, I believe Surfree is leasing its entire dial-up and backbone network through PSINet.

Its ad-bar (called SurfBar) "pays" 20-cent per hour, and works with any program (like UtopiAD CashBar), not just while using web browser (like AllAdvantage ViewBar), thus speeds up your target of completely free internet after using it for just 75 hours. The bar uses around 6MB of RAM, way less compared to Java-intensive ad-bar like NetZero ZeroPort or ValuePay PiggyBar, and seems very stable.

Surfree has even upped his bounty commission offerring to $50 from just $20 a year ago. With such commission, not just one can save 100% on his/her dial-up internet access, he/she can even make a handsome income, just like if using and promoting AllAdvantage etc. ad-bars. It won't be a residual income, but $50 per possibly-free subscription, looks very enticing, doesn't it?

Surfbar's Advantage

Surfbar users are actually real internet users, with at least one legitimate credit card (potential shopper!), thus translating into a real number of ad audience! Advertisers can be rest assured that their ads are seen by "quality" audience. Unlike NetZero or FreeI that boost amazing millions of sign-ups, the truth is, only a small fraction of that number actually use the service/ad-bar, ie. smaller than expected viewership.

My bet is that NetZero (traded as NZRO) will continue to lose money for the years to come by not being able to generate enough ad revenue, but, Surfree might have some chance, simply because, it has a backup income: subscription fee from those who opt to not use the Surfbar, or use less than 75 hours per month.

Say you need some space on your desktop, no, you cannot quit that annoying Netzero's/FreeI's ad-bar, or else you'll have to re-dial for your net access, but with Surfbar, go ahead, do just that, and re-run Surfbar anytime you're ready to watch that $14.95 fee reducing to nil. And you don't even need to click and mouse-over Surfbar to keep your internet connection, as required by other so-called free ISPs.


That's all for now folks. Go Surfree!


ADDITIONAL READINGS

Free Net Access: Everybody Does It
by Reuters (June 2, 2000)
"A few Internet access providers are attempting to sidestep some consumers' aversion to advertising by giving them the option of turning advertising off and paying for access. Surfree, recently acquired by Eisa.com, charges $14.95 per month for dial-up Internet access. However, subscribers can download the company's Surfbar ad viewer, and for every hour they have the ad viewer turned on while they're online, they can knock 20 cents off their monthly bill. If they spend 75 hours online in a month, they surf for free."
- http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,17006,00.html

ISP Tries Almost-Free Net Access
by Jason K. Krause, The Industry Standard (August 10, 1999)
- http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,12210,00.html

Access: No Free Lunch?
by Randy Barrett, Inter@ctive Week (April 30, 1999)
- http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,401231,00.html

Get Connected
by Marty Sems, Smart Computing (July 1999)
- http://www.smartcomputing.com/articles/archive/g0707/08g07/08g07.asp?guid+n4669lay




Recommended: Yes