Murphy USA, a gas station chain located adjacent to Walmarts and Sam’s Clubs, is offering a deal on gas if you check-in using Foursquare. In all of its 1,000+ locations, a check-in will save you $2 off a purchase of $20.

If there was any way to promote Foursquare check-ins right now, it would be with gas deals. Americans are losing their minds over the high prices at the pump.

Murphy USAGas Prices are on the rise again, but so are our sweet @Foursquare Specials – $2 off your $20 gas purchase when you check-in! 4 hours ago · 214 likes · 69 comments

What seems like a pretty cut and dry fun little deal is receiving some interesting feedback on Facebook. The above post has already received a bunch of comments and the vast majority aren’t positive. Many comments ask “What is Foursquare” while one asks “How do I check in LOL?” Many state that they feel left out of the deal because they don’t have a smartphone, and ask if they can still get $2 off. Well, if that worked then Murphy would have just lowered the price of gas for everyone, wouldn’t they?

It seems as though people have a disconnect between coupons and location based deals like this. Nobody would ask for the same deal an actual coupon holder received if they didn’t have the paper coupon themselves. Maybe they aren’t seeing the check-in as just that, a virtual paper coupon.

Last year, Internet Business Director for Murphy USA Casey Petersen spoke about check-in strategies for business. At that time, they were using Whrrl to “engage customers and build loyalty.”

Check-in deals are most likely only going to increase in frequency moving forward. Hopefully they can help people to find savings in everyday activities and allow businesses to better connect with their customer base.

In Texas, or near Texas, or if people have loved ones in Texas, they’re searching for news of Hurricane Ike, which is destined for landfall in Galveston. The rest of the country, while no doubt very concerned for their countrymen are also concerned about spiking gas prices as the hurricane makes for oil refineries.

Aside from the shocking news Christian singer Ray Boltz came out of the closet dominating at number one, the rest of the non-hurricane-centered gaining search queries suggest our gas overlords are simultaneously gouging the entire country in anticipation of hurricane damage to the gas supply, which is a really crappy thing to do.

People are looking for gas prices by zip code, for cheap gas, for gas trackers, you name the variation. In Kentucky, Gov. Steve Bershear declared a state of emergency as gas prices skyrocketed toward and above $4 per gallon across the state, jumping by as much as 70 cents in a few hours. Though he stopped short of naming what the cap would be, he did strongly iterate that price-gouging laws were in full force and the state would be monitoring prices.

Also on trends list is Ron White, who was arrested yesterday for possession of marijuana and paraphernalia as he got off of a private jet. From the sound of the report, he was set up; an anonymous tipster led police there ahead of time. 
 

Although gas prices have begun a slow drop from the $4 per gallon range, some people may be in a habit of using less gas by doing more shopping on the Internet.

eMarketer cited Nielsen’s finding of an increase in the number of consumers who said they were shopping online more often due to higher fuel costs. Eleven percent of consumers surveyed said they were doing so, compared with 9 percent in June 2007; 9 percent said the same thing in June 2006.

“While retail store growth is in the middle-low single digits, e-commerce is still growing at least in the mid to high teens,” Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer, said in the report.

Gas prices barely merited a mention in reasons to shop online only three months ago, according to a Harris Interactive/iCongo survey. 33 percent of Internet users surveyed cited rising gas prices as a reason to shop through the Web.

On a side note, even though it’s July and back to school items have just started gaining prominent placement in stores, it’s time for online retailers to start thinking about their holiday season online marketing efforts.

Campaign tweaking and landing page testing should be on everyone’s list. Veterans and newcomers to online marketing may wish to make a space for SES San Jose in their calendars; the conference begins on August 18th.

A new Miami-based company, MyGallons.com is offering consumers the chance to purchase gasoline at current prices and then fill up later when prices will be inevitably higher.

MyGallons offers two annual membership plans ranging in price from $29.95 to $39.95. Members can access their accounts by visiting the MyGallons Web site to check how much they are saving, transaction history, balance, and pay for additional gas to add to their account.

Customers will be contacted via email and text message when their balances are getting close to zero, so they can add gallons to their account.

Members will receive a MyGallons card after registering on the Web site and opening an account. The card can be swiped at the pump just like a debit card.

The price per gallon at the time of purchase is based on the average gas price in the zip code of a members billing address. MyGallons says its service is accepted at 95 percent of gas stations nationwide.

"By allowing consumers to pay for quantities of gas at current prices, MyGallons provides them with a solution to cope with gasoline price increases," said Steven Verona, Founder and CEO of MyGallons.

The rise of gas prices in the US to $4 per gallon has people throttling back on driving, and looking for alternatives to putting the pedal to the floor. When they have to drive, they want to do so at the best price they can find for gas.

Since gas stations tend to keep their prices in lockstep with each other, only varying by a few cents at most, it isn’t easy finding the best price when the next trip out requires a trip to the pump. It’s a situation that measurement firm comScore said is driving big traffic numbers to GasBuddy, a network of gasoline price-tracking sites.

“37 percent of the searches for ‘gas prices’ phrases clicked through to a GasBuddy site, driving 640,000 visits from the U.S. to the property in April 2008,” comScore said in a statement. They also cited figures showing nearly a million people performing 1.73 million searches for phrases including ‘gas prices’ in April.

The epic rises in crude oil have people opting for public transportation where they can, which leads us to believe sites like our local Lextran should be seeing more traffic from commuters. We also find it amusing that the Saudis are so worried about driving the adoption of alternative transportation that they are publicly calling for lower crude prices.

Such activity should have an impact on the gas price searches witnessed by comScore. On Thursday, June 19th, public transportation systems across the US will observe Dump The Pump Day, with free rides all day long; that may influence searches as well.

AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report offers information on average prices paid at 100,000 gas stations across the country and posts national, state and local averages for the different grades of gasoline.

The AAA Fuel Cost Calculator allows users to plan and budget for the amount of fuel they are likely to use on a long-distance trip. Users enter the trips starting point and destination and the type of vehicle being driven, the site will calculate the miles driven, the amount of fuel that will be used and the cost.

Here are some tips from AAA’s Gas Watcher’s Guide.

Stick to a routine maintenance schedule. Keeping tires inflated, moving components properly lubricated and ignition and emission systems operating properly will help ensure maximum fuel efficiency and extend the life of your vehicle. 

If you own more than one vehicle, use the more energy-conserving vehicle as often as possible.
Consolidate trips and errands to cut down on driving time and miles traveled. When possible, combine them with your daily commute.

If you are going somewhere new, get a map first from an online source such as AAA TripTik (www.AAA.com). Getting lost wastes gas as well as time.

Comparison shop by phone or online if possible before heading out on the road.

Slow down. For most vehicles, fuel economy drops off significantly when traveling more than 60 miles per hour. As a rule of thumb, you can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.20 per gallon for gas.

Avoid quick starts and sudden stops. They waste fuel, are harder on vehicle components and increase the odds of a traffic crash.

Lighten your vehicle by cleaning out the trunk, cargo areas and passenger compartments. A heavier vehicle uses more fuel.

Keep your eyes open for low fuel prices but don’t waste gas driving to a distant filling station to save a few cents.

The doubling of gas prices over the past few weeks has people angry about seeing otherwise disposable income shift from their pockets to their gas tanks. Yet every other car on the road appears bigger than the average post-World War II starter home.

If people are concerned about gas prices, or alternative vehicles like hybrids, Hitwise analyst LeeAnn Prescott isn’t seeing it:

When prices first spiked in after Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, people went online to find the cheapest gas stations in the area and find out more about fuel economy, at sites like GasBuddy.com and FuelEconomy.gov. Now it seems inevitable – saving a dollar or two doesn’t seem worth the cost of driving a few extra miles.

The oil companies and the traders who have been gleefully bidding up oil prices over the past month have the upper hand. It’s their world, and we’d better be happy just to drive in it.

We must be pretty happy. Searches for ‘gas prices’ and ‘hybrid cars’ for the week ending May 12, 2007 were respectively 92% and 82% lower than it was during the week ending September 3, 2005, according to Prescott.

If the conspiracy theorists can be believed, we’ll see gas prices fall before the next Presidential and Congressional elections. OpenSecrets can tell you more about who’s enjoying oil & gas money ahead of those elections, in case anyone was wondering why America doesn’t have an intelligent energy plan yet.

MapQuest believes they have a superior gas finder to the one released by AAA. The gas price search page MapQuest presents to a visitor has the search form, and a map of the US in the center of the page showing some sample prices around the country.

At press time, it was good to be in Hoffman, MN, to find the lowest gas price in the country, at $1.58 per gallon. Those who are there might not agree, as the current weather for the area is -6 degrees, -25 with the wind chill factored in as well.

Several features incorporated into the gas search service on MapQuest provide some extra usefulness. Visitors have the option to search for gas or diesel, but can also look for alternative fuels and their prices.

For the brand- and quality-conscious driver, MapQuest also lets one specify fuel type and grade, and to sort by brands. Our Doug Caverly, who would rather dump ground glass and battery acid directly into his car’s gas tank than use certain brands, should like this.

Mapping of gas prices has been integrated into the site’s capability to provide directions to a destination. Clicking on a search result brings that gas station into focus, and offers links to find directions to or from it.

I don’t know if I can recommend searching for gas prices on MapQuest after having been out in the snow this morning to get fuel. My search showed I could have saved seven cents per gallon easily had I checked MapQuest before heading out today. Darn it.

—

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

“September’s breach of the $3.00/gallon mark appears to be the tripping factor for the massive spike in searches on ‘gas prices,’ said general manager of research at Hitwise. “Even though we ventured into the $2.90s in the last few weeks, we experienced only a moderate increase in ‘gas price’ searches.”

The $2.90 per gallon mark, though, does set off a dramatic spike in searches for the term [hybrid]. The byproduct of that is good news for Toyota and Honda, two car manufacturers that offer hybrid automobiles. In April, Toyota’s website enjoyed a traffic increase of 42 percent overall while visits to Honda’s website increased by 19 percent.

The largest spike in traffic went to websites like Gas Price Alert and Gas Buddy, where visitors flocked by an increase of 432 percent and 417 percent respectively between April 1st and April 29th.

The pain at the pump also pushes interest in alternative energy. Hitwise says searches for the term [ethanol] were up 212 percent for the four weeks ending May 13th, and searches for [biodiesel] was up 100 percent. Tancer reasons that increased attention to ethanol as an alternate fuel source in 2006 has caused it to overtake biodiesel, which was more popular last September.

In April, the market share of visits to the government site FuelEconomy.gov were up 115 percent over March 2006, and visits to the American Coalition for Ethanol site and the US Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy site were up 96 percent and 78 percent respectively.

The flipside of that, fewer people are searching for [SUV] and even [roadside motels] as the summer travel season begins.

“The majority of visits to the motel category occur during the summer months, yet as gas prices increase over the last several weeks, there is a noticeable decline in visits to the category,” said Tancer.

|

Drag this to your Bookmarks.

Add to DiggThis Yahoo My Web