Oil and Gas Prices Increase Traffic to Price Comparison Tools

I remember when, a few years ago, I first started to notice websites with aggregated, user-submitted gas price information, essentially gas price comparison tools.

While I don't drive, these things seemed like a lot of work to me. First, you'd have to have enough people in your area know about the sites. Then, you'd have to have enough people care enough about the sharing of information to post prices for the stations as they spotted them--and keep updating those prices. Finally, you'd have to have the time to identify the best price in your area and to drive there. I admittedly take the bus, but it still seems like a lot of work for slightly cheaper gas.

Fast-forward to now, when yesterday's price of oil per barrel saw a new high of $139.89. The graph above charts the traffic to the apparent leader in the field (from among those sites of which I'm aware) GasBuddy and its closest competitors GasPriceWatch and FuelMeUp. These sites are wildly more popular now than they were six months ago. GasBuddy alone has seen an increase in Reach of 250% when comparing the past three months' traffic to that of the previous three months.

It seems these comparison tools' time has come. With people lowering their other expenses to afford gas, reports of cars stranded on the side of the road in increasing numbers due to running on fumes, and the advent of the "Staycation", such sites are yet another possible aid. I remember when I first saw these years ago and forwarded them to my parents. I didn't hear any feedback and guessed they maybe didn't have the time to bother with finding gas they could buy and still afford food. I'm thinking I'll send them a link to this blog post.

Have you used these sites? Which is your favorite? Are there others we should check out? Let us know in the comments.