Another idea to track pellet/wood prices

[Hammerjoe]

Hi guys.

I came up with another idea to be able to track easily pellet/wood prices in your area.

There is this website www.frappr.com that uses google maps technology.

Here's the link: http://www.frappr.com/?a=constellation_map&mapid=137439290857

It allows people to join and add some info to their location.

I created this map called Heating prices, and everybody can just go to the site and make an entry in the map.

The entry should be something basic like Name of the place/store. date it was created (ie 2007/01/27) and the current price and source type (pellet/wood/corn/etc).I

Afterwards anyone should be able to change any of the info to update it.

I think it is a good idea.
Mods, maybe this is something to consider.

Cheers.

 

[Shane]

Added mine.

 

[webbie]

There are two problems I see with fuel price tracking...

1. Critical mass - having enough people enter their prices
2. Accurate addresses

I purposely kept the address field loose on my fuel report form for this reason - after all, if you can start and use a Pellet Stove, you can find - for instance - Wal-Mart in Northampton, Ma.

So far our little site has had almost 20,000 visits - but it will take a lot more to get it really going.

Another problem is - what if that site decides to close or change? I have found it best to have "local" ownership of such data.

Now, another take is that once I have enough data it will be easy for me to automatically tie it into maps and allow for searching that way.

I need to perhaps do more PR and even paid advertising for the new Fuel Price Guide. I created a separate URL for it as:
http://www.forfuel.com

 

[Hammerjoe]

This was just an idea to have a more visual look to whats close to the individual that is looking for prices in the area.

The problem with your tool is that it is very hard to look for prices in the area.
And please add the Canadian provinces to your drop down list.

As I example I entered my local price in your website and I can't find it.

This was just a sugestion to make things easier.
I will gladly stop this and give it away to someone else that knows more about web programming and knows what to do with this stuff.

I just want a tool to help me save some money on fuel.

Cheers.

 

[colsmith]

On gardenweb I put my position on some map via frappr. You have to sign up with frappr to do so. What I recall is frappr sent me junk email frequently so I cancelled. Don't know if it is still that way, but wanted to mention it, I think we all get enough junk email as it is.

 

[begreen]

Good thought. No sense turning this into spamelot.