Category: Technology

Ballmer on the Smartphone Market

This made me chuckle. Last week, Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer made an interesting comment about the smartphone market. According to Matt Asay of CNET News:

Asked about smartphones, Ballmer said Nokia, Research In Motion, and Apple will all lose out as the market expands over the next five years, because they design their own proprietary hardware and tie it closely to their software.

Nokia leads the smartphone market today with about a 30 percent share, he said. “If you want to reach more than that, you have to separate the hardware and software in the platform,” he said.

I wasn’t the only one who had a chuckle though. The fine folks at Ars Technica, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, and The iPhone Blog also couldn’t help smirking. TUAW had the best title though: “Ballmer channels 1985…” Ha!

I wonder how Ballmer feels about Google (GOOG) Android then. Hey, that’s a separate hardware and software solution! Just like you said, Ballmer!

iPhone’s Stanza Validates E-books and the Kindle

I love it when I hear news like this. Andy Greenberg and James Erik Abels over at Forbes just reported that the “IPhone Steals Lead Over Kindle“.

They’re talking about the Stanza iPhone app. It’s been available free on Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone App Store since July 2008 and has been downloaded more than 395,000 times at an average installation rate of 5,000 copies a day, according its developer, Lexcycle.

So how is it beating out Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle?

By comparison, Citigroup estimates Amazon will sell around 380,000 Kindles in 2008… In other words, Apple may have inadvertently sold more e-readers than any other company in the nascent digital book market.

That’s fine though. I’m still exceited. To me, this is yet another data point on the validation of the e-book market.

I know, it’s a stretch to claim that Stanza has validated e-books to the mass market. But it does show to me that there is a growing early adopter audience who’s learning a new behavior – reading books on electronic devices. As this audience grows, they’ll provide a good reference base for the early majority.

Validating a New Market

Every time a disruptive technology enters the market, people either:

  1. Learn how to use it because it solves a problem satisfactorily and is worth the learning curve
  2. Or ignore it because it doesn’t solve squat and/or the barrier for adoption is just too high

In many cases, one company inadvertently helps another by teaching the market the benefits of its solution, thus paving the way for stronger competitors. Take VisiCalc, Lotus 1-2-3, and Microsoft (MSFT) Excel, for instance. Before there was any spreadsheet software, there were pencils and paper. Not all finance professionals saw the need for doing their work on a computer.

But then they saw VisiCalc in action and were hooked. VisiCalc, in effect, had validated the spreadsheet software market.

Soon thereafter, Lotus 1-2-3 stepped in and one-upped VisiCalc. It had more desirable features, such as automatic graph creation and macros. Then Microsoft Excel entered the market and changed everything. Some argue that Excel wasn’t a better product, but Microsoft was a stronger company. Using the distribution power of its operating system, it swallowed up the spreadsheet market.

Being a Strong Competitor

Just because you validate a market doesn’t mean you’re doomed to failure. It’s a case of the first-mover advantage. In some markets, strong companies can validate the market and own it through exploiting a network effect (where the value of your offering increases exponentially with the size of your customer base). Amazon and eBay (EBAY) are popular examples of this.

What’s more important is being a strong competitor. In the spreadsheet software market, Microsoft was that strong competitor. They were able to exploit a second-mover advantage:

A second-mover firm… does not face the marketing task of having to educate the public about the new project because the first mover has already done so. As a result, the second-mover can use its resources to focus on making a superior product or out-marketing the first mover.

In Stanza’s case, I doubt they’re doing any marketing to educate the market. This hasn’t stopped them from creeping onto Amazon’s turf, however. Although they only offer public domain books right now, they’ve been working on some deals with major publishers. I smell a battle.

This is where being a strong competitor will win out. Amazon has the muscle of vast resources, brand name, and most importantly, publisher partnerships.

Is There an E-book Market?

Which brings me back to why I’m so excited about this news. I believe Amazon’s got the right approach, though there’s been some debate about whether or not this market exists. Do readers really want e-books? Or are they already satisfied with regular books?

In my opinion, yes, there is a market. Yes, some do want e-books (I sure do!). And Stanza helps to validate that. While I know it’s not representative of the mass market, its quick adoption shows that it’s not e-books themselves that are holding consumers back, it’s the lack of easy-to-use e-book devices.

Fortunately, I believe Amazon has the strength to pull this off. I have high hopes for them in creating a usable and enjoyable (and hopefully, delightful) e-book reader. They just have to keep on listening to their customers and improving their device. They’ve got the Amazon Store in place, e-books in the inventory, and some early adopters already using it. Now it’s a matter of putting out a cheaper and better device.

Almost Half of Google is Beta

Oops, looks like someone forgot to finish Google (GOOG). According to Pingdom, website monitoring service, almost half of Google’s products are still in beta.

Out of the 49 Google products we could find, 22 are in beta. That’s 45%!

This list includes well-known products such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Finance. Pingdom didn’t include Google Labs products because they’re considered a “playground” for future products – though if they did, the percentage would be 57%.

What’s especially notable is that Gmail and Google Docs are products with premium editions – for $50 USD/year, you get more storage space, better security, integration capabilities, and deeper technical support.

The question on everyone’s (well, everyone who’s read Pingdom’s article, at least) mind is: why? Why are so many of Google’s products still in beta?

Why Are 45% of Google’s Products in Beta?

My take is that this is the result of a lack of oversight, coordination, and product release process within the product management organization at Google.

Google is full of smart people. It’s not like they want nearly half their company to remain in beta. However, Google is a company mostly run by engineers, not product people. Engineers typically want to build cool, innovative, and new products, as opposed to working with existing code. Ask an engineer to build you a new feature and the engineer is likely to rebuild your entire architecture in the process. Building something new is way more fun than working on something old.

So perhaps most of the top engineers who built Gmail and Google Docs have moved on to new projects, leaving junior engineers to continue their work. And the product managers don’t have a lot of resources or authority to take these products out of beta.

Other Opinions

Some have guessed that Google is trying to limit their liability by using the “beta” label. I seriously doubt that. Though I’m no lawyer, I would guess that since they accrue revenue from these products, the beta label doesn’t given them any extra protection. I’m not sure that a beta label would give anyone any serious protection anyways.

Others have surmised that Google is just making a statement that they’re constantly building & improving their products. That, of course, begs the question: why are some products in beta and others not? Are only some still being improved while others are not? And you don’t need a beta label to do that.

Google is Struggling Through Puberty

I see this beta label as an example of how Google is a young company that grew up very fast. They went from childhood to adolescence before they was totally ready for it. To be fair, many of the best companies do that. Now Google is struggling with puberty, that awkward age where they’re trying to stay true to their childhood ideals while becoming more responsible. Their voice is squeaky and there’s hair in funny places. But they’re trying.

What Beta Officially Means

Within the software world, a beta release is:

The first version released outside the organization or community that develops the software, for the purpose of evaluation or real-world black/grey-box testing. … Beta version software is likely to be useful for internal demonstrations and previews to select customers, but unstable and not yet ready for release.

Since Google is using this term, I have to imagine that they know what it means. But they clearly aren’t using it properly, since a product that is “unstable and not yet ready for release” is definitely not something for which you would want to charge your customers. Yet they are.

The argument that beta is Google’s way of telling the world they still have huge product plans is unfounded. Web software, by its very nature, allows for uninterrupted and relatively seamless updates. They don’t need a beta label to state the obvious, especially if they don’t use the label consistently.

Lack of a Product Release Process

That’s why I fault Google’s product management organization for this. They know this. At least, I hope they do. They just may not have the power and muscle to do this. And chances are, someone is emailing Pingdom’s entry around the Googleplex like crazy with the note, “Hey guys, did you see this? We gotta get on this!”

I hope someone listens and fixes this. Perhaps by doing an internal audit of all their products for official release viability. Or at least by implementing a proper product release process. This process doesn’t even have to be a convoluted and bureaucratic process; just a simple checklist will do. Otherwise, they’re diluting the beta label.

Though, honestly, I don’t think this is going to have a dramatic impact on how people use its products. Only software programmers and web geeks know what beta means, so they (we) are the only ones who are really bothered by it.

It certainly does irk me though.

Biz Idea: Portable Digital Advertising

Here’s a random idea I once had. You know those ads you see plastered inside of restaurant & bar bathrooms? They’re usually behind a plate of glass and right at eye-level.

Advertisers pay to get that “captive” audience. (When you’re, uh, lightening your load, you’re a captive to anything you see right in front of you.) And restaurants & bars get additional income from those adverts.

Those are the ads I’m talking about. Some companies have even gone a step further – some have installed flat-panel screens to show video ads. Now you can watch the latest Batman trailer while emptying your bladder for more beer. Not a bad idea, if they could be installed on bathroom stall doors, though that might encourage people to take longer than necessary.

Now here comes my idea. Drum roll, please. Budda budda budda budda…

Idea Summary

What if you operated a business-to-business company that offered portable flat-panel screens for digital & video advertising? They could be as small as a regular laptop screen. Your customers would be any kind of business that has customers that have to wait – like busy restaurants, dentist & doctor offices, oil changing services, etc. These screens could be placed in their waiting rooms, so their customers could have some eye candy, instead of tapping their toes and staring at the ceiling mindlessly. Impatient customers may even enjoy the visual distraction. And while some customers may prefer reading a magazine, some may prefer a bunch of movie trailers or entertaining commercials.

Business Model

Your revenue would come from the advertisers. You’d be able to give them specific geographic targeting, as well as some demographic targeting (the customers who go to a Jiffy Lube in East Palo Alto, CA, will be different from the customers who go to a plastic surgeon in New York City, NY, for instance).

Target Market

Your customers would get paid for hosting these portable flat-panel advertising screens at their locations. This additional income would make this device more attractive than a bunch of waiting room magazines too. A dentist would have to purchase a bunch of magazine subscriptions. But hosting one of these screens would mean extra cash for the dentist. Sound-sensitive environments such as restaurants could turn the volume down (or mute it) while others may want the audio component as well.

Product

The device would just be a flat-panel screen connected to a computer of some kind. If a dummy terminal could be built simply to receive & render web pages & video, that would be even better. The ads could be anything from video to static images to animation. To get the ads, the device would need to be connected to the Internet for real-time transmissions. A dedicated line would be more reliable than a wifi connection. This unfortunately means the customer would need to have Internet access. Not all customers will. Alternatives? I’m not entirely sure yet, but I’m sure some smart person could figure something out (maybe you pay for a cheap dedicated line, maybe you partner with an Internet provider, maybe you build it to receive radio transmissions, I dunno).

Sales

Other than device costs, you’d also need to hire a staff of salespeople who’d sell it to local businesses. Signing up franchises and national chains would be great, but some customer types wouldn’t exist in such forms – such as dentists & doctors. There would also be some sunken costs as you attract advertisers and customers from the onset, both of whom need to see a threshold number of the other before committing. Or, perhaps, you eat some of the initial costs and pay customers to host your device while running generic ads until you gain enough traction in the market.

Competitors

There are a fair number of indirect competitors right now who are offering video screens to businesses, though they generally target bathroom placements. This device could be placed anywhere: bathroom, waiting room, lobby, anywhere. These competitors already have a device, advertisers, and advertising network, however. To make the leap to placing their device anywhere may not be that difficult. Could this idea be more suited for one of them then, as opposed to a brand new company? Maybe. Or, since they’ve been targeting seedy bar bathrooms for so long, are they unable to reach more discreet customers like dentists & doctors? That could be the niche opportunity this business needs.

Conclusion

I do see some legs to this idea, though I’d hate to introduce even more intrusive advertising into this world. Though, to be honest, it would be kinda cool to watch movie trailers while perched upon the porcelain throne of quiet contemplation… Hmmm…

And who likes waiting around and flipping through old copies of Highlights while waiting for their dentist to finish up on a bunch of screaming patients? I’d rather be entertained by a new Apple or Infiniti commercial or something. Wouldn’t you?

Should I Switch to Gmail?

I’m struggling with a question. Should I switch to Gmail?

I’ve been using Yahoo! Mail for five years or so. Like many of you, I’ve invested a lot into that email address. Switching from an older account that was deluged by spam, friends found it painful to keep track of which email address was my active one. Many kept sending messages to the old account. Others always prefaced their emails with, “Which email address do you check? xxx or yyy?”, even after I’ve given them an answer like ten hundred thousand times. Ugh!

I’m also a power user of Yahoo!’s (YHOO) personal information management tools, such as Yahoo! Address Book and Yahoo! Calendar. They provide me with a way to carry my contact list and schedule anywhere I go, even if my mobile phone dies on me. Both are also tightly integrated with Yahoo! Mail. So switching from Yahoo! Mail isn’t just a matter of adopting Gmail, I’d also have to adopt Google’s (GOOG) Contact list (embedded within Gmail) and Google Calendar.

Quite a few hurdles. Is the switch worth it? Well, Google’s products are, admittedly, pretty damn cool. I’ve been using Google Docs, Google Reader, and other products fairly extensively. As they integrate them all into a tighter suite, their collective benefit increases for me. So what’s stopping me from switching? Let’s address each issue and see if any solutions exist.

Issue #1: Reminding Friends of My New Email Address

Sending a mass email to my friends is easy enough. Reminding those few friends who forget that I have a new email address is tougher. How can I make sure all of those dumb-dumb heads start using my new email address?

Potential Solution? Yup!

Yes, an easy solution exists! After emailing everyone, I can get Gmail to automatically receive all new emails. This can be done in one of two ways. Option one is setting up Gmail’s POP Mail Fetcher. Not all email services offer POP access, but Yahoo! Mail does if you purchase their premium plan (which I did). This tool will basically fetch all new emails from Yahoo! Mail and place them in my new Gmail account.

Option two is setting up automatic forwarding from my old email account. Most email services offer this, as does Yahoo! Mail. This does what you’d expect – it automatically forwards all new emails to my new email address. I haven’t tried this yet to know if changes the “from” field to my old address, however. Anyone know if it does?

Issue #2: Moving All Old Emails to New Email Account

This one’s a toughie. I have years and years of archived emails that I refer to often. It’s valuable data, not just for nostalgic reasons, but for business and reference purposes too. If I ever lost all of that data, I’d curl into a ball and cry. I’m also meticulous about organizing my old emails into their appropriate folders. If I had to tag all of my old emails in Gmail manually, I’d curl into a ball and, well, maybe not cry, but at least sniffle. Is there a way to migrate all of my old emails within their current folder structure, while retaining their “to”, “from” and “date” fields? (e.g. mass-forwarding them all is not an acceptable option.)

Potential Solution? Not Really

Well, howdy doody, a solution exists! Almost. For $9.95 per email account, YippieMove will automatically move all of my old emails to Gmail while retaining the emails’ integrity (e.g. “to”, “from”, and “date” fields) – I think. Their site doesn’t state this explicitly, though they claim that “with YippieMove, the emails will look the same on the destination as it did on the source.” There is one known flaw in the process currently: Gmail lists emails by the date at which they appeared within Gmail, not their actual delivery date. Weird. There’s also a more significant barrier for me… they don’t support Yahoo! Mail as of this post. Major bummer!

So I’m left without a realistic and acceptable solution to this issue for now.

Issue #3: Importing Yahoo! Address Book to Gmail Contacts

My Yahoo! Address Book is my little black book, my Rolodex, my birthdays list, my way of finding my friends’ contact info, everything. Without it, I’d have no way of contacting my friends, since it’s been decades since I’ve memorized a phone number. Keeping the integrity of all this data in Gmail’s Contact list is very important. Can I export my Yahoo! Address Book and import it into Gmail’s Contact list easily?

Potential Solution? Not Really

Almost, but not really. Exporting from Yahoo! Address Book is easy enough. I can get a CSV file formatted for Microsoft (MSFT) Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Palm Desktop, and in a generic Yahoo! CSV format. But when I try importing this into Gmail, it picks up every field except addresses. Gmail expects addresses to come within a single “address” field, whereas every other application I’ve seen separates an address into “street”, “state”, “city”, etc. I haven’t been able to find a way to easily map the separate address fields into one either. Ugh.

Anyone want to write a quick script for concatenating multiple rows into one? Otherwise, I don’t believe a realistic and acceptable solution exists right now.

Issue #4: Importing Yahoo! Calendar to Google Calendar

I put my whole life onto Yahoo! Calendar. Well, not my whole life, but lots of important reminders, meetings, dinners, and other general events. Told you I’m a power user. There have been times where I’ve forgotten a lunch because I didn’t have it on my calendar. (Sorry!) In this multi-task-heavy world of mine, a calendar is a crucial tool in helping to organize and even prioritize all the things I need to do. Can I export my Yahoo! Calendar and import it into Google Calendar list easily?

Potential Solution? Yup!

Whew, the answer here is yes. All I need to do is export my Yahoo! Calendar into a CSV file (with the same format options as Yahoo! Address Book) and import it into Google Calendar. I’ve done this already as a proof of concept and originally ran into a snag – I received a constant “Google Calendar is temporarily unavailable” message for three straight weeks. That’s a heck of a long time for being “temporarily” unavailable. But then one day, my schedule appeared in Google Calendar. I’m not sure what happened, but it was finally a successful import. Whew.

Issue #5: Having the Ability to Use Disposable Email Addresses

Spam hasn’t been an issue for me on Yahoo! Mail (knock on wood). One reason is that I protect my email address vigorously. Another is that I use Yahoo! Mail’s AddressGuard feature a lot, which allows me to create an unlimited number of disposable email addresses to protect me against spam. This is such an important feature that I purchased a Yahoo! Mail Premium account just to have it. Does Gmail have disposable email addresses too?

Potential Solution? Not Really

Sort of. Technically Gmail does have disposable email addresses, but they aren’t as powerful as Yahoo! Mail’s. With Yahoo! Mail, I can create a new base ID before attaching a disposable suffix. For example, if my email address is “mike@yahoo.com”, I can create a new base ID of “mikesmail”. Then I can attach a disposable suffix of “-amazon” for all my Amazon.com purchases. This makes my full disposable email address: “mikesmail-amazon@yahoo.com”. There’s no way a spammer can guess that my actual email address is “mike@yahoo.com” from that. Gmail’s disposable email address method simply attaches a disposable suffix to my real email address. So “mike@gmail.com” becomes “mike+amazon@gmail.com”. I’ll give you a cookie if you can guess what my real email address from that disposable one. C’mon, what kind of spam protection is that?

Sadly, I don’t find this a realistic and acceptable solution right now.

Issue #6: Syncing Google Information with Mobile Phone

I currently have a BlackBerry and access my contact list and schedule frequently. While I use my online contact list and schedule as the master copies, being able to easily sync the two is critical. Being able to access my email is pretty high on the list too. Can Gmail, Gmail’s Contact list, and Google Calendar sync well with the BlackBerry?

Potential Solution? Not Really

Hmmm, there appear to be solutions, though some think it’s a horrible experience. BlackBerry’s native email reader seems to have problems pulling from Gmail’s POP settings. An alternative is to download the Gmail mobile client, though that app isn’t as quick as the native reader. Syncing Google Calendar is easier though. I can download Google Sync to my mobile phone and sync it easily. Sadly, this is not the case for Gmail’s Contact list and BlackBerry’s Address Book. There’s no way to sync those two currently. Ironically, one solution offered by a user on Google Groups is to auto-forward my email to Yahoo! Mail, since Yahoo offers easy syncing with the BlackBerry.

I wonder if the iPhone has any syncing problems with Google’s services. Oh, maybe so. Rats. Again, the lack of a realistic solution is unacceptable.

Conclusion

That’s two out of six possible points that Google’s personal information management tools have scored. Unfortunately for me, that means I can’t realistically and reliably switch over to Gmail, Gmail’s Contact list, and Google Calendar yet. Perhaps someday, Google will improve these tools. But until then, the barriers to entry are just too high. As much as I love their tools, the cons outweigh the benefits. Sorry Google.

The Click-through Rate of Google’s Search Results Page

This is an oldie but a goodie. SEO specialists know this already. You should too, if your internet business depends on traffic from Google at all.

Back in August 2006, AOL (TWX) released the search records of 500k users collected over a three month period. The data was removed as quickly as it was published, due to privacy concerns. It is still available on various mirrors on the internet, however (nothing is ever completely erased from the internet).

Then Richard Hearne of Red Cardinal took the data and figured out the average click-through rate of each position on Google’s search results page:

SEO specialists and internet marketers can then use this data, cross-reference it with the Google’s Keyword Tool, and figure out potentially how much traffic they can receive per keyword if they’re able to achieve a high search engine rank.

How reliable is this data? Pretty reliable, since the selection size is so large. There may be some bias (they were all AOL users), but I’m guessing it’s fairly accurate. Ed Dale believes it’s pretty spot on.

A couple of months later, several researchers from Cornell University did an eye-tracking analysis of Google’s search results page. They came up with slightly higher click-through percentages, as Oleg Ishenko of SEO Researcher shows with the following heat map:

The Cornell study is less reliable, however. Their sample set was only 26 undergraduate students who performed 397 Google queries in a usability lab.

In either case, these results show a strong click-through rate for the first result (no duh). The rates taper down until the last result, which enjoys a slight uptick. It should also be noted that this data only shows rates for organic search results and not PPC/sponsored listings.

Cool stuff though. I love free data.

CrunchBase API for Competitive Intelligence

Who doesn’t love free stuff? I sure do. And when they can be used to make your business offerings even better, I call that Awesome with a capital A.

I was just reading Dharmesh Shah’s Embarassingly Gushing Praise for TechCrunch And The New CrunchBase API on OnStartups.com and it got me thinking.

What Shah is so excited about is CrunchBase’s new & free API. CrunchBase is a “free directory of technology companies, people, and investors that anyone can edit”, much like a wiki. It’s not technically a wiki yet (I believe that’s in the plans though), but pulls in a ton of data (from sources like LinkedIn and Google Maps) in addition to offering manual input from editors and the community. In short, it’s a fairly robust database of business information for the high-tech & internet industries.

To put it another way, it’s a valuable resource for competitive intelligence. Which means if one of these online competitive analysis services were to jump on the API and start including this data, they’d have quite an attractive offering. Or aat the very least, they’ll make things easier for business researchers.

Plus, CrunchBase’s API is free. So why the hell not?

Marketing with Gas Saving Tips

Fricken hell. I just paid over $50 to fill up my gas tank. Way over $50. What I wouldn’t give for a hybrid right now (and a hybrid & electric vehicle refueling station!).

With that said, everyone and their Mommas have been trying to cut their gas bills. The smart folks at ModBargains.com saw an opportunity in this and recently sent out an email newsletter full of gas saving tips, along with a gentle reminder to check out their products too.

ModBargains.com is an ecommerce shop that specializes in aftermarket car parts and accessories. The CEO, Mike Brown, started this site in 2005 with a buddy to sell parts for modifying BMWs. They started this while still in attending undergraduate classes at Chapman University. A year later, at the young age of 21, Brown was named the Global Student Entrepreneur of 2006 by the Entrepreneurs’ Organization from among 10 finalists from the United States, Canada and Sweden. Smart guy!

And their gas tips are pretty smart too:

At the Gas Pump

  • Buy gas at the coolest times of the day usually early morning or late afternoon when the sun is not up. At these times, the gas is the most dense, meaning you pump more gas in early mornings or late afternoons than at noon when the sun is at its highest point and density of gas is less. The gas pump measures volume of gasoline pumped through, not density.
  • Avoid topping off the gas tank, overfilling causes the gasoline to slosh around inside and leak out of the gas tank

General Driving Habits

  • Traveling at fast speeds in low gears can consume up to 45% more fuel than is needed.
  • At highway speeds, use your a/c, and on city streets roll your windows down.
  • When possible use Cruise Control. On highways constant speed, in most cases, saves gas.
  • Drive at a steady speed. Constantly slowing down and speeding up consumes gas.
  • Avoid tailgating. Not only is tailgating unsafe but the driver in front of you is unpredictable and can slow down at any second.
  • When driving up to a hill, if you must accelerate, do it before you reach the hill, not on it.
  • Try to avoid driving on rough roads when possible. Dirt and gravel roads use up to 30% of gas mileage.
  • Stoplights are timed for motorists advantage. Staying at the speed limit increases the chance of having green lights all the way.
  • Remove excess weight from trunk or inside car – spare tires if you have roadside assistance, backseats, and unnecessary heavy parts. The more weight in your car the less gas mileage you get.
  • When traveling, use as much trunk space and cab space as possible to avoid using a roof rack that creates drag on the highways.
  • Carpool. All riders help you buy. Carpooling reduces the amount of cars in traffic.
  • During cold weather check car for ice frozen to the frame of your car. 100lbs can be quickly accumulated.

Idling

  • Avoid warming your car up for prolonged periods of time 30-40 seconds is enough time.
  • Idling your car for one minute consumes the same amount of gas when starting. Don’t stay in a drivethru go inside.
  • Avoid “revving” this wastes fuel needlessly and washes oil down from the inside cylinder walls resulting in loss of oil pressure.
  • Accelerate slowly from a complete stop.

Recommended Check-Ups

  • Get your car checked regularly to guarantee the best fuel economy for your vehicle. Keeping air filters clean maintains good fuel economy.
  • Use recommended grade of motor oil.
  • Inspect chassis and suspension parts for occasional misalignment. Bent wheels, axels, bad shocks, broken springs, etc. can create engine drag and are unsafe at high speeds.
  • During good weather season remove snow tires, traveling on deep tire tread decreases gas mileage.
  • Keep tires inflated to the maximum recommended limit. Get tires periodically spun, balanced, and checked for out-of-round. (check manufacturer’s specs for max tire pressures).

Air Intake Advantages

  • There is common misconception regarding intakes. Some people believe that it is only for making your car louder. Although this is true, an air intake system does more than that. Not only it make your car sound better, but it will also give you more horsepower and more miles per gallon. Since the engine is breathing easier, it doesn’t have to work as hard to produce its power.

    Therefore you use less fuel. If you wanted to take your performance and your miles per gallon even further, then I would recommend replacing your catalytic converters to Hi-flow catalytic converters and install a larger-diameter exhaust system. Both improve exiting airflow from the engine and increase horsepower along with increasing your miles per gallon. Since you are saving money at the pump, these modifications will soon pay for themselves.

    With 18 mph with your stock intake, we calculate that with an aftermarket intake you should save approximately $500 per year by using an aftermarket intake of good quality. This is based on 30 miles per day of driving at $5/gallon.

Traveling Tips

  • Before driving, plan your route. Determine your destination(s) and find the best way there–this includes the distance needed to travel to the destination, the amount of traffic involved during your commute, and the time of day you travel. Planning your destination ahead of time will help you save a significant amount of gas and time during your day.

    There are GPS devices today that include live traffic information features that will help you during your drive to your destination.

Low Price Gas Locator Websites

  • Gasbuddy.com – GasBuddy.com can help you find cheap gas prices in your city. It is a network of more than 181+ gas price information websites that help you find low gasoline prices. All web sites are operated by GasBuddy and has the most comprehensive listings of gas prices anywhere.
  • Mapquest.com – Mapquest Gas Prices finds the cheapest gas prices in your area. Helping you save money on your next gas purchase.
  • Fueleconomy.gov – Fueleconomy.gov provides you with Gas Prices, Gas Mileage Tips, Articles on Hybrid, Diesel, Alternative Fuel Vehicles, and more!

Great tips, huh? An email newsletter with this much content is sure way to get forwarded to friends and friends of friends. The tip I most appreciated was buying gas at the coolest times of the day. I’ve heard most of the other tips before, but not this one.

A smart email marketing move if I’ve ever seen one, especially with today’s gas prices. Brown & ModBargains.com: everyone and their Mommas thanks you.