Gasbuddy.com Review

Gasbuddy.com is a web site that has 2 aspects to it: you can participate by reporting gas prices and by posting on the message board, or you can use it as a resource for finding gas prices and reading articles related to gas and oil.  When you participate on the site, you earn points which buy you entries into a drawing for pre-paid fuel cards.

I started out by experiencing the site as a participant.  Since I have a job where I'm out and about all day, I figured I would be at an advantage as far as being able to report a lot of prices.  Well, I neglected to read the rule which states that you only earn points for the first 5 gas prices you report in a given day.  There are 3 gas stations at the nearest street corner to where I live, so just reporting the prices from those is more than enough to meet my maximum for a day.  As for the message board, I'm involved in too much other stuff online already, so I simply don't have the time for it.

This site has a lot potential as a resource.  My favorite tool is a map on which you can zoom in, zoom out, and scroll, and on which the prices at various gas stations are shown.  That map is where I discovered the weakness in the site as a resource; there are tons of gas stations whose prices are not reported.  I decided to check the route from Lafayette to San Antonio, which I had driven back in December.  There are way more gas stations that what is being reported, and there's almost nothing shown between Houston and San Antonio.

All in all, Gasbuddy.com gets an average rating from me, but I can definitely see the potential for the rating to be higher.  The points system needs to be adjusted to encourage people to report more prices.  Also, the number of prices reported will hopefully increase with an increase in the number of users on the site.