- PHILADELPHIA -(AP) Hate it
when you fill 'er up and five minutes later spot another station selling
gas for a nickel a gallon cheaper?
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- Jason Toews, a 30-year-old computer programmer from the
Minneapolis suburbs, hated it even more when he couldn't find an easy way
to shop around.
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- "I even tried calling up some of the stations to
find out what their prices are, and they usually didn't like to tell you
over the phone," he said. "They think it's one of their competitors."
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- Toews started the nonprofit GasBuddy Organization Inc.
four years ago with a friend, chronicling regular unleaded prices in the
Twin Cities. The site was so successful that he and co-founder Dustin Coupal,
an ophthalmologist, expanded nationwide.
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- Now, gasbuddy.com links to 173 price-comparison Web sites
with names like louisvillegasprices.com, phillygasprices.com and miamigasprices.com,
with 50 more local sites coming online this fall.
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- Price-sensitive motorists are flocking to the Internet
to shave their gas bills - and, perhaps equally important, for the psychological
satisfaction of knowing they have some control over what they pay.
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- "I'm cheap. I'm not paying more for something than
I have to," said Christina Klein, 40, who uses the Philadelphia site
daily.
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- The GasBuddy network surveys an average of 150,000 stations
per week in every state and Canada. At phillygasprices.com, volunteers
check hundreds of Philadelphia-area gas stations per week and post their
findings on the Web. Prices are automatically sorted from lowest to highest.
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- When gas shot up to more than $2 a gallon this summer,
traffic to the GasBuddy sites increased sevenfold, to about 500,000 unique
visitors a day, Toews said. It has since dropped to 150,000 to 200,000
a day - a figure that could spike again if gas prices rise.
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- Another Internet site, for-profit GasPriceWatch.com,
also reported an increase in traffic, with a peak of 300,000 visitors on
June 6.
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- "Our participation is directly proportional to the
price of gasoline," said Brad Proctor, founder of GasPriceWatch.com
in Centerville, Ohio.
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- The Web sites work similarly, relying on volunteers to
report prices and advertisers to pay the bills. Visitors enter their ZIP
codes to find prices at nearby stations.
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- About 270,000 people have registered as volunteer gas
price reporters for GasBuddy. Some people post prices once or twice a month,
while others are fanatical, reporting every day, Toews said.
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- GasPriceWatch.com said it has more than 100,000 price
spotters.
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