Google petrol pumps debut next month Google, the company that pits bot against bot in the lucrative eyeball-herding range wars of adland, has extended its reach yet further. Not content with hogging browsers and phones, the search colossus will soon appear on the humble petrol pump. According to AP, new pumps made by Gilbarco Veeder-Root are about to be deployed …
Given how impatient and pushy drivers can be when queueing for the pumps already, imagine what will happen when drivers can stand there and surf!
I give it a week before we get reports of an impatient motorist shunting another car away from the pump because the driver is standing there trying to work Google Maps after he has filled up and paid.
Considering when I'm filling my car up at the pump I'm stood bored with nothing to look up except the figures on the pump spinning until the tank is full and this takes a couple of minutes I would have thought you have the perfect candidate for some good old context sensitive banner advertising (keyword 'petrol') with an audiance who literally can't run away from it. Filling the car is boring enough that people might actually look at it!
I love the idea I've waiting 10 minutes for the pillock in front to move off the pump, whislt my ozone killing car is happily sat there pumping out fumes.... but wait then I'll need to add more fuel as I will of wasted loads just sat there....that's how the petrol stations will make the money !
Forecourt advertising... it's been done before and failed.
Anybody remember seeing the adverts on the pump nozzles? These days they just advertise the vendor's own products as there isn't enough profit in it to bother changing the adverts regularly.
Moving on from this - anybody remember the electronic displays on the nozzles? Once all the electrical certification and installation had been taken care of - guess what? Yep, no profit in that either.
In a similar vein, there was a company dedicated to audio/visual advertising channels in forecourts - great apart from a few problems... punters couldn't hear the content because of the noise of the nearby road / fuel pump itself (solution was to make the thing so damn loud it pissed everybody off). Also, the video screens couldn't be seen because they were cheap non-daylight screens and therefore couldn't be read and due to their environment, they got dirty very, very quickly. Can't see why these failed either...
"The business model is described using the elliptical phrase: "Participating retailers will be able to make extra money from other merchants that offer coupons on the service."
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are there otthers out there turning against the tide of google?
I predict a backlash, but where will folk run?
Perhaps back into the arms of Microsoft...
...."its touching to see how they love big brother"?
or will we finally see the rise of open source?
will their battle cry be "Free Anonymity"???
...I doubt it!
if there is hope, it lies with the paroles!!
I leave my engine running. Rather use a few minute's worth of fuel rather than turn the engine off for few a minutes, and then waste all that petrol plus more probably by turning the engine on again to move 10ft, then turn it off again. Turning your engine on uses about a mile's worth of fuel, just like turning a projector on uses 4 hrs of lamp life.
Unlike the UK, where you typically have to keep the pump handle held (or 'squeezed') in, most petrol/gas stations I've used in the US allow you to put the pump in the nozzle, squeeze the handle, and it stays pumping until it senses that the tank is full. Most UK station pumps also have this automatic cut off when they sense the tank is full. But, the key is that in the US the user doesn't have to keep holding the handle in place and their petrol/gas is cheaper so they ain't watching the dials spin round either.
This average 3 minute wait, I guess, is the time google is aiming for people to use their kiosk advertising whatever mumbo jumbo thing instead, and without incurring pump rage (or nearly as much as some other commentators on here fear)
Usually there isn't a queue at the petrol pump here in the US. Only at times when the prices are moving around and one station is more than 5 cents cheaper than the others...which usually quickly match the price. So waiting for someone to pull a map or coupon isn't that big a deal.
This idea is actually in use already at many petrol station in the US, with adverts for stuff from the convenience store at the station being plugged on the LCD or scrolling text display. It works, not so much from the standpoint that it's inherently interesting, but it's cheap (read: free) and even a very small number of incremental sales drives people into the C-store, where the REAL profits are made.
Besides, it returns us in a post-Internet way to the "good old days" where maps of the local area, state and country were gladly given away by the friendly pump attendants, along with directions and suggestions for restaurants and hotels. (Yes, I AM old enough to remember those days!) But it will probably only work in America, or possibly the Antipodes, where there are petrol stations on nearly every corner, with 8 or more pumps and plenty of parking. (Some of the petrol stations in Mexico or Japan don't even have pumps on the ground, but hoses hanging from the roof and large displays of the pump info on a wall - no Googling from these locations!)
Finally, the HUGE complexes that provide diesel fuel for lorries here are very much prime candidates for this. Truckers currently have to leave their rig and go into the building for maps, payment, etc. - this keeps them moving on the tarmac and gives them information that they usually need to get via CB radio from other truckers. As well as plugging the services at the station and other local trucking business.
Nice idea, Google!
Get with the programme kids, the rage now is CLIMATE CHANGE, we don't care about the ozone layer any more.
Your cars don't deplete the ozone layer, that was CFCs. They are no longer a problem at all (i.e. we've forgotten about them). Your cars give out greenhouse gases, alledgedly leading to global warming or as it's called now CLIMATE CHANGE (see above).
Of course, it's possible given that we are coming out of a geological period known as "the little ice age" (it's not all that long age the Thames was freezing over in winter to such an extent that an annual fair was held on it) that temperatures may be due to rise *anyway*, and the idea that anything we do significantly affects this world is sheer arrogance on our part.
I'm in the US, and I usually clean the windows while the tank fills. As far as queues are concerned, I think I might have had to queue for fuel once, maybe twice.
I think, for the reasons given by others, this is doomed to fail. What might *not* be doomed would be a kiosk machine inside the petrol station, because the way people ask for directions is to go *inside* to speak with a person. When you get there, you usually find "person" was an overstatement. At best, you'll get directions to Mexico. Accessing electronic maps from inside the shop is more like it. But listen at me! Giving away all my ideas to Poogle!
Got satnav? Got mobile broadband on your laptop (and you Do have your laptop with you)? No, ok get maps on yer phone. Sorted. Except for the hard core of internet-deniers, who would not be seen using it if you gave them a PC and connection gratis.
Luther has been know to call in at petrol stations for directions. But to display a local map on the pump and not let geographically lost people route themselves is simply insulting.
BTW I think amanfromMars is asking for JK Rowling stories. Anyone have any good ones? Or bad ones.
Modern cars are fuel injected. They don't dump in extra gas for a hot restart, and so you are absolutely not burning a mile worth of gas restarting the engine. I have heard the cutoff between idling and restart is only around 30 seconds idling. That said.. I haven't had to wait in fuel lines, but in other lines I tend not to shut my engine off either, unless it's waiting for a train.
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