Need Cheap Gas? Find it Fast!!

Mobio’s “Cheap Gas” Portal for your Cell Phone

ByJeff Gottesman

Quick! Where’s the cheapest gas station within a 5-mile radius of where you live? Don’t know? Grab your cell phone and get the information in the time it takes to grab your car keys…and the information is free!

That’s the idea behind the new free application “widget” from Mobio Networks, Inc. Said to work on over 60 different cell phones, this free service is a one-time download, with new application “collections” delivered automatically as they become available. Www.getmobio.com is the place to get the download and all other information.

With today’s high gas prices, I already use the internet to search out the lowest prices in my neighborhood…and with internet connectivity already available on many cell phones, what’s the big deal with Mobio? The answer is “simplicity!” By the time I use my cell phone to access the internet, surf to the appropriate website, and enter the required location information, I’ve pressed enough buttons to keep me busy for 5 minutes. With Mobio’s “Cheap Gas,” I have the information at my fingertips with very few clicks and no or minimal data entry.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You need to have a cell phone data plan that enables you to access the mobile web. So depending on your carrier, your plan may come with unlimited access or with access to the mobile web that you pay for by the kilobyte (Kb).

The Concept

According to Mobio, “studies of consumer behavior tell us that the vast majority of purchases occur within 10 miles of where people live or work. Likewise, most of us tend to fill up our gas tanks near where we live, work, or the other places we frequent ...” Thus, “Cheap Gas” allows you to enter street addresses of these locations for future easy recall (they are actually stored internally as logitude and latitude). Each address is saved with a “location tag” (name) for easy retrieval.

For example, I entered my home address, my work address, my local supermarket, places I go for recreation, etc. Then…whenever I find myself in need of a fill-up near any of these locations, finding the cheapest gas takes only a few clicks.  However, in this age of GPS enabled phones, I wonder why the software wouldn’t just find the gas stations closest to my current location? Mobio has two answers: 1) GPS enabled applications typically must be purchased for a subscription price of between $20-$36 (Mobio is free!), and 2) you may want to check gas prices at a location other than where you currently are.

Here’s How it Works

Before you can get any useful information from “Cheap Gas,” you must enter the locations around which you are interested. You can enter many locations and each one has a “location tag” which you designate. You can enter a location by using the exact street address, a zip code, a city and state, etc. Realize that the more specific you are in your address, the better the information you will receive. If you enter an exact street address, you will get gas price data within a radius of that exact address. If you just enter a city or zip code, the radius is based on the center of that city or zip code.

So let’s say that I will be going out shopping this afternoon and I know I’ll need gas along the way. I start “GetMobio” from the “Applications” or “Games” menu on my phone. I’m quickly connected to the GetMobio lifestyle portal containing numerous application widgets in my collection. I select “Cheap Gas” from the menu, select the “supermarket” location tag from the drop down menu, and I’m immediately told of the cheapest gas stations near the supermarket. I have the option of selecting a radius of 1, 3, or 5 miles from the “location tag” and also have the option of selecting all brands of gasoline or a specific brand that might be my favorite. Gasoline prices within the radius chosen are sorted by those whose prices have been updated within the past 72 hours, with the cheapest prices appearing first.

Pricing information is provided to Mobio by www.GasPricewatch.com which depends on a network of over 150,000 nationwide “spotters” who enter gas prices into their website. So, the accuracy of the prices in your area depends on how many spotters you have.

In my review of the application I entered various location tags and for each one varied the radius to see how the results changed. For the most part, if prices were more recent than 72 hours the results were great. The application only displays about 30 gas stations at a time which is usually sufficient; however, if many of the stations have outdated pricing information (older than 72 hours), it is possible that your entire result screen can contain outdated data. The solution for this is to reduce the radius of your search or select only one brand of gasoline.

As an example, I searched for prices at one location within a 3 mile radius. The cheapest gas was at a Shell station. I know that there is a Valero station 4 miles away that usually has the cheapest gas in the area, but this did not appear in my search. When I widened my radius to 5 miles, there were so many stations in the list that my Valero station still did not appear in the list of 30. I wanted to find the price at that particular station, so I entered Valero as the only brand I wanted to see. Voila…my station appeared and the price was higher than Shell.

I did find one situation where it may take a bit more work to find the best prices. Normally, the list displays recent prices (less than 72 hours old) within the specified radius first, sorted lowest price to highest. But I did come across a glitch where a station was displayed in a 1 mile radius with a recent price, but when I went to a wider radius this station no longer appeared. I was told by Mobio that this could happen if there are many stations with outdated prices that are lower than the individual station with a recent price. Since the application only holds, displays, and sorts the 30 stations with the cheapest prices, the station with the recent price may not be in the 30 shown.  The solution to this is to start with the smallest radius and then get wider.

Another useful tool is the mapping function. Once a station is displayed you can easily get a map of it’s exact location (and zoom in and out)…very handy when you don’t know the area that well.  Also…search results are based on the price of regular grade. Once you select a station, you can also find prices of mid-grade and premium.

After getting past the learning curve of “Cheap Gas” and entering all of my frequented locations, I must say that using the application was a snap! In fact….I loved it! “Cheap Gas” is the newest member of the GetMobio lifestyle portal offering consumers over 50 applications and RSS feeds in different collections. In looking through the list of other applications such as finding restaurants, theaters, clubs, sporting events, flight times, and more….all with the same ease and speed as finding cheap gas…these free applications are sure to be a hit.