Mission Creek

Every now and then a site comes across my screen that holds my attention not for what is it, but for what it represents. Gasbuddy.com is a site that is very relevant given today’s outrageous gasoline prices. But why I find the site interesting is it is at the crux of the “last mile” or internet convergence.

I am co-opting a telecom term here for what I think may be the most interesting area in internet marketing, the ability of the internet to convert the leverage of the online information into a use that is very local, habitual, and decidedly offline.

What I see is a site who is addressing something as low tech as filling up a tank of gas, and then attempting to leverage a community of users (in this case, that community is huge, just about anyone who has a car), to create a value proposition that the visitor can translate into literal real world savings. Now this is easy when the value proposition centers around is a commodity which can be shipped (ala Amazon, Overstock, etc). But here is a company that is creating a value proposition which is based on an additional behavioral action of the website visitor. To further complicate matter, getting gas is usually an activity that is based on location, habit, and routine. The value proposition that the site if offering has to be great enough to overcome these natural tendencies.

But I also think this is a case study for the larger question that powerhouses like Google are trying to answer, how do we translate the online experience into one which effects local offline habits. Will gas prices be a key that start more and more users to integrate the online experience into their offline world, I don’t know. Maybe that depends how high gas prices go……