Fuelly
Last week I was in San Francisco for the Start Conference. Not only was it a refreshingly hype-free conference filled with great ideas and advice, but Matt had a chance to get on stage and talk about something we just started: Fuelly. It's a site that helps you track your gas mileage and then share and compare how you're doing with others.
Sometime in June Matt mentioned the basic idea for the site, and I was surprised it didn't already exist. Over the next couple weeks we brainstormed about the potential site once in a while, and at some point we realized we could put it together. We took July to focus on building the site and we had a working demo for a couple dozen friends in about two weeks. Since the launch last week, we've been busy adding the top feature requests and trying to make the site available to a wider audience. (Fuelly is a little too US-centric at the moment, but improving.) It's fun seeing how people are using the site, and how the empty space we created for fueling activity is slowly filling in.
As Matt mentioned on Flickr, the first 24 hours exceeded our expectations. Lots of folks have been very enthusiastic about using the site, and I'm looking forward to the site evolving as Fuelly drivers make it their own. And I think the time is right to team up and take a collective look at our fuel consumption as a group. I know I've been trying to get the most out of my car now that I know others are watching. (By the way, I'm pb at Fuelly.)
Here's a quick roundup of posts that mentioned Fuelly in its first week:
Sometime in June Matt mentioned the basic idea for the site, and I was surprised it didn't already exist. Over the next couple weeks we brainstormed about the potential site once in a while, and at some point we realized we could put it together. We took July to focus on building the site and we had a working demo for a couple dozen friends in about two weeks. Since the launch last week, we've been busy adding the top feature requests and trying to make the site available to a wider audience. (Fuelly is a little too US-centric at the moment, but improving.) It's fun seeing how people are using the site, and how the empty space we created for fueling activity is slowly filling in.
As Matt mentioned on Flickr, the first 24 hours exceeded our expectations. Lots of folks have been very enthusiastic about using the site, and I'm looking forward to the site evolving as Fuelly drivers make it their own. And I think the time is right to team up and take a collective look at our fuel consumption as a group. I know I've been trying to get the most out of my car now that I know others are watching. (By the way, I'm pb at Fuelly.)
Here's a quick roundup of posts that mentioned Fuelly in its first week:
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"With Fuelly, you can compare and compete with other users for mileage bragging rights. Does that matter? It could help you research real-world mileage on a car model you're thinking of buying. And it might be something you want if you're a competitive hypermiler."
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"Overall the point of Fuelly is to make saving fuel more fun by connecting your stats with your friends, and at this early point in its life, it does a pretty great job."
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Nice summary of Fuelly from a local angle: "I'm looking forward to seeing how Fuelly helps me and my family reduce our fuel consumption."
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J.D. on Fuelly: "Fuelly taps the power of the masses to compile real fuel efficiency data so that users can find ways to save money."
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Chris Pirillo's video summary of Fuelly.
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Great summary and screencast of Fuelly in action.