Search for cheap gas goes online and, at times, divine

WASHINGTON – A new service from Verizon Wireless lets customers use cell phones to search for the cheapest, closest gas stations. To get FuelFinder, subscribers have to pay $1.99 a month, in addition to a $5 monthly Web access fee.

But what’s a few bucks, if you can save a few cents?

“It saves people from having to drive for miles to look for cheap gas,” Verizon Wireless spokesman John Johnson said.

Sharing information on how to deal with gasoline prices has driven huge amounts of traffic on Web sites in recent weeks, as drivers fume, exchange tips on where to buy gas and how to increase fuel efficiency, and even gather online to pray for lower gas prices.

Last month, gas-price-tracking Web sites posted some of highest growth in traffic on the Internet, according to ComScore Media Metrix. The most popular, Gasbuddy.com, compiles user-reported prices at stations around the country, and got 2.3 million visitors in April, up from 755,000 in March. The Energy Department’s site, Fueleconomy.com, saw a 172 percent increase the same month.

Gasbuddy.com now gets from 1 million to 1.5 million visitors a day, and hosts forums on which 16 million messages have been posted, said Jason Toews, a co-founder of the organization, based in Brooklyn Park, Minn.

There, in addition to kvetching about cost, people hold forth about alternative fuels, suggest taking heavy loads out of the car to save gas and advocate driving slower on the highway to get better mileage.

“I’ve noticed people are driving slower,” said Toews, who said it’s possible to increase the efficiency of a car by 20 percent by going 55 mph instead of 75.

Other sites – such as GasPriceWatch.com, Gaswatch, GasPriceAlert, and the Utility Consumers’ Action Network’s Gasoline Price Tracking Service – also help consumers comparison shop, sometimes by compiling data from customers themselves who report to the site. FuelFinder compiles data reported by gas stations and credit card companies and the service allows subscribers to choose between unleaded, premium mid-grade or diesel prices.

Search engines also provide an increasingly popular way to find fuel-related information. Internet searches for the term “ethanol” increased 212 percent from April to May, according to another research company, Hitwise. Searches for “biodiesel” increased 100 percent during the same period.

During the past month, Yahoo Inc. said the number of searches on its site for gas prices and hybrids increased 250 percent, peaking in the last week of April, coinciding with the peaking of gas prices and Earth Day on April 22.

Bloggers are getting a lot of mileage out of the topic, as well, using social networking techniques to seek out cheaper gas.

“I just (paid) $47 to fill up my little Hyundai. This is nuts,” a MySpace.com blogger in Massachusetts, who called himself Troy aka Cockroach, wrote earlier this week. “So, I managed to find it for $2.99 … up at the Hess. Anyone know any cheaper spots around (here)? I heard S. Main st. Hess is even cheaper.”

Some are aiming higher than fellow Web surfers for help. On Wednesday, online worship center Praylive.com hosted a 3,295-participant group prayer for lower gas prices.

Verizon hopes to cut through such informal efforts with FuelFinder, the cellphone service, which allows users to type in a ZIP code or town name to pull up a map and a short list of nearby stations, starting with the cheapest. The site comes with links for turn-by-turn directions to each station.

FuelFinder’s overall database is compiled by MobileGates Corp., and includes prices from more than 110,000 service stations, but does not include discount shopping clubs, such as Costco or Sam’s Club.

In rare cases, savings on gas can total 30 cents to 40 cents per gallon in some cities, but the bulk of stations run at around the same price, which means you can win the hunt for cheap gas, but lose money overall by paying for finder services or driving out of your way, said consumer-behavior expert Terry Childers, a professor at the University of Kentucky. “But sometimes the emphasis is on rewards, and you forget about the cost.”