
gas pump
The latest data feeding into the site has prices moving up in cities across the country--no doubt due to a spike in oil as Hurricane Gustav lurches toward the Gulf of Mexico.
PumpPredictor claims to help drivers get in on cheap gas when it's available, using pricing-prediction methodology and email/text messages to alert users when gas is about to get more expensive. The big downer? It costs $3.99 a month, which could eat up your savings in one 30-day period or less if you're careless about heeding its advice. However, it also lets you peg 5 zip codes for pricing information, so you could find it useful if you road-trip a lot. Or, in theory, you could set up a network of friends nationwide, split the fee and hamstring this startup like all the Webvan users who made off with the fantastic plastic grocery bins they used. (Yes, totally guilty.)
Useful or loopy? Like a lot of sites built with similar technologies, it's easy to see the same features expanding across other verticals outside of gasoline. If you're a subscriber or user of PumpPredictor, tell us your experience on the site and if it's really the deal or not.
Email This Page