Well, I’ve figured out another sector of the population that is benefiting from the astronomical gas prices besides oil companies—Internet gas trackers. I’ve spent many a blog touting sites such as GasBuddy.com and the AAA’s “Fuel Price Finder” so it stands to reason that as gasoline prices go up, the more money these types of websites make.
Take a look at GasBuddy.com. The site got started in 2000 to track daily gasoline prices using volunteers to e-mail what they found while traversing the country. According to its creator, back then only a few dozen people used it. But by 2004, 1 million people were visiting the site daily, although the numbers dropped when prices went down. Compare that to this week when the site experienced a record 4 million hits in one day. (The site’s owner told news reporters that he had to buy more servers to keep up with demand.)
Have you ever visited one of these gas tracking sites? If you log on to GasBuddy.com you will find gas prices listed for more than 180 locations in the United States and Canada, in addition to every major city in North America. According to the site, the average price nationally in the U.S. was $3.22 for unleaded Friday afternoon, compared with $2.86 a year ago.
Another popular gas tracking website is GasPriceWatch.com. The site’s creator says GasPriceWatch.com has recently added prices for ethanol, biodiesel, truck diesel and ultra-low-sulfur diesel. As a result, hits on the site have doubled. According to the site’s records, eight people log in every second during peak periods.
I’ve visited both sites and found that the information is fairly accurate for the prices listed in and around my city. However, keep in mind that if you find yourself driving more than 10 miles to save a nickel, you are losing money. Also, there’s no guarantee the price that was posted on the site on Thursday will be the same when you arrive at said gas station on Friday. With the amount of gas stations these Internet sites are tracking– GasBuddy Organization Inc., claims to monitor 900,000 stations with several hundred thousand registered volunteers, while GasPriceWatch.com says it tracks 170,000 stations—there’s bound to be some discrepancies.
One more note: the cell phone provider Mobio Networks recently launched a free service to its customers showing the cheapest gasoline prices in their area. GasBuddy.com also allows you to place your zip code in the text area, and the site will reply with the cheapest nearby stations. The site also has a national map for those of you who are planning to drive long distances.
Do you visit gas tracker sites? If so, what have your experiences with them been like?
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