GreenHybrid Acquired by CarsDirect.com
 

I'm pleased to announce that GreenHybrid.com has been acquired by Internet Brands, Inc., which operates leading automotive web sites like CarsDirect.com and Autos.com.

The plan is to maintain GreenHybrid.com as a stand-alone site, and I personally plan to continue my active role in the community. However, being part of IBI means access to a wider audience of hybrid owners, enthusiasts and shoppers (CarsDirect reaches more than 7 million users/month), as well as to extensive automotive content that can supplement what is currently on the site.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email them to me. There is an FAQ about the acquisition below, and you'll be able to discuss the topic here on the message boards. Also, beyond any questions you might have, I'd enjoy hearing any ideas for how to better serve the GreenHybrid community going forward.

Thank you.
Jason


FAQ

Q: Why did CarsDirect.com buy GreenHybrid.com?
A: CarsDirect.com is as passionate about cars in general as GreenHybrid.com users are about hybrid cars in particular, so tapping into a focused community of hybrid owners is a good fit.

Q: Will GreenHybrid.com become part of the CarsDirect.com site?
A: CarsDirect.com plans to keep GreenHybrid.com a separate, thriving site and to continue expanding its content, community and traffic.

Q: Will the two sites link to each other?
A: Yes. CarsDirect.com users will be able to access community content on GreenHybrid.com, and GreenHybrid.com users will be able to access research and shopping tools on CarsDirect.com and its sister site, Autos.com.

Q: Is Jason Siegel going to continue at GreenHybrid.com?
A: Yes.

Q: Is CarsDirect.com going to put ads all over GreenHybrid.com?
A: GreenHybrid.com currently runs 2-3 Google Adsense positions on its pages. CarsDirect.com plans to keep those ad positions and gradually replace Adsense with advertisements sold directly to auto manufacturers, insurance companies and other contextually relevant accounts.

Q: What changes can we expect to see on GreenHybrid.com?
A: It's hard to predict far into the future, but for the time being, GreenHybrid will add links to CarsDirect's research and shopping tools, as well as more content to help people brand-new to the idea of hybrids. Beyond that, CarsDirect plans to brainstorm with Jason, his excellent moderators and the GreenHybrid.com community on improvements that would make the site more useful.

Q: Will my CarsDirect.com login/password work on GreenHybrid.com and vice versa?
A: Not at the current time. If it makes sense to both communities that the sites' databases be joined, it will happen later this year.

If I had the time...
 

If I had the time, I'd like to do a javascript that would allow users to enter one of these and get all three:

• US mpg
• UK mpg
• liters per 100 kilometers

Other javascripts would be useful such as:

• Enter your mpg, miles driven annually, price of gasoline
• Get the annual estimate gas cost and compare it with vehicles getting 10mpg, 20mpg, 30mpg,40mpg, 50mpg, 60mpg, 70mpg
• Your vehicle would have the additional (or reduced) annual gas cost compared to the other vehicles

Re: If I had the time...
 

Only one question -- how much $$$$?

Don

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Sellout!!

PS: :D

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Hey Jason,

It sounds like a good deal all the way around - provided the fundamental nature of the forum remains focused on hybrids. Yes, I read your assurance of this and hope for the best.

Will the site be ported to another server? I assume if so that the addresses, etc. will remain the same - at least for the immediate future.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Chuck, these are features a bit too specific for our current goals. First we'll have to start with the integration of GreenHybrid into the network (though, of course, it will still remain an independent site).

Don (and Sledge), I assume you ask in jest but anyway for clarification, this is not something I am able to disclose. However, I assure you the acquisition will mean great things for this site. The resources provided by CarsDirect far surpass anything that I would be able to provide singlehandedly.

John, for now the site remains on the same server, though this may change in the future. You will not notice any server-related changes besides a likely temporary shutdown during the port.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Way to go Jason! Your not even out of school and you have already built and sold a business. Hope you got enough to pay back at least the first years tuition at Rice. I know how much that school costs!

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Jason,

Congratulations! I still think this is the best site for research on all hybrid vehicles.

:D

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Way to go Jason! Just don't forget us little people when you acquire Google in a hostile takeover.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

I'm sure nearly everybody would love to see some dollar figures but I'm also sure Jason is never going to disclose said information.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Aw, it will just make you feel worst. :)

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Hi Jason,

Congratulations but I have been keeping my mileage data only on your web site. I'm going to save a copy of my 03 Prius data now and after every tank.

Once again, thanks for the great web site and good luck in your endevors.

Bob Wilson

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Bob, I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Your data is safe here at GreenHybrid and will not be removed, if that's your worry!

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

--

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Yep, in jest it was. And, I don't think you sold out. I think you made a very wise stategic decision for both you and the GH community. Win-win.:thumbs_up

Don

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

xcel,

I think the additional resources are an opportunity to do more things at GH.

xcel, what you you think if there were pages to do:

• Enter your mpg, annual miles driven, estimated cost of gas, click submit and get you annual cost and compare it with vehicles that get 10mpg, 20mpg....80mpg?
• Enter your US mpg, then get the equivalent UK mpg and liters used per 100 kilometers?
• I bet you would have other ideas.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

--

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Wayne, as part of the agreement I will be continuing administrating GreenHybrid through all of 2006.

I'm not sure what you mean by Google hits (search engine optimization?) but it is true that as both the site and my responsibilities grew I felt it would not work in the long-term for me to retain ownership. While activity has been slowly increasing, the actual statistics show monthly unique visitor counts leveling off since I've been at college. At this point I feel I've done everything I can do traffic-wise given my resources.

Internet Brands, Inc. has the resources and manpower to take GreenHybrid to the next level. Their sheer traffic levels alone can give this site the kick it's been waiting for for quite some time. I have discussed with their staff my inabilities due to time restraints and finances to publish higher quality unique content, dedicate pages to individual vehicles and address some member concerns. There is serious potential now for these improvements to become a reality.

Most importantly, my life is slowly transitioning towards other goals. I am currently studying political science and then will likely be off to law school. While hybrids will remain an interest, I will eventually need to dedicate my life to a career and successful future. Improving GreenHybrid would become a small hobby to me for a small audience, whereas it can remain a primary job of Internet Brands, Inc. for an extraordinary audience.

Wayne, as per my email you are still more than welcome to speak with Stan Holt and me over the phone.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Congrats Jason!!!

Ive really enjoyed the grass roots effort and can understand your life goals. Have been very impressed with your efforts and whats been done here.

But this wonderful grass roots effort cant be done by MBA's. And thats what will be running the site. Such a shame. Can see another edmounds in the making.

Good luck in your lifes journey. This little glimore has been a joy to see and be around.

Are you sure you want to be a lawyer???

Greenhybid.com Sold
 

Jason, you did an excellent job with creating the greenhybrid site. Many have learned about FE from your creation of this site and I thank you for that. Hope the sell helps pay for your College degree and more.

It now appears the sell is complete at a time I no longer want to post things that freely make the new owner's money. The intent of my post was to help others enjoy the benifits of what I've learned from my FEH here and other places on the net. I've picked up some great information from xcel, but if he can't answer my post, screw this site.

GaryG

Re: Greenhybid.com Sold
 

??? Something happen Gary that I'm not aware of? I know you've gotten tired (A phase I bordered on) for a while, and you'd been getting some pressure from your wife, but that seems overly harsh.

On "Selling Out"
 

I don't think this is an abandonment of what GreenHybrid stands for.

I did talk with Jason and Stan and I'm not concerned this forum is headed in the wrong direction. I was at a forum (not auto-related) that the founders built up, then took off in a different direction, leaving the members betrayed. I don't see either hidden adgenda or a redefinition of what GreenHybrid stands for.

I don't know how many of you realize the time and money that is involved in getting a domain name, a good webhost that can handle the volume of members, and setting up the forum - it's a challenge. The hardest thing is to get people to come. It's a lot like setting up a business, requiring knowledge of the technical, interpersonal, and the forum topic. Not many forums succeed like GreenHybrid.

Also consider Jason has plans for law school. In case you are not aware, Rice University is top academic university in the Southwest and among the best in America. I'm just higllighting the obvious he has a lot on his plate It was a matter of time before Jason would transfer ownership. It seems to be in good hands.

Some may be concerned GreenHybrid no longer be a haven for hypermilers and the environmentally concerned. Some probably fear that we would get a large population of members seeing hybrids as a way to continue to drive aggressively or in gas guzzlers. The best way to keep GreenHybrid to maintain a theme of using less fuel and polluting less is for our hypermilers to remain.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Good job and good luck! You did what you felt was right for you, and that's what matters.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Good job Jason. $Remember$, think about #1 = yourself first. Hopefully the site will flourish, I'm sure it will. I just hope it doesn't become plagued by pop-ups and advertisements.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

I know there is some concern about the future of GH. But, thanks to Jason, we have a community which can meet the challenge.

Jason has put a lot into this site, making it as democratic and respectful as any I have seen. It is not now just Jason's dream, but the ideal of an entire community.

It is bound to change - as are all living things. It is up to us to see that it changes in the directions that we want to see.

I know that you will be leading us for a while yet, Jason. Feel no guilt as your redirect your efforts. We have learned from you and will continue the community you gave us.

Thanks for that. And best wishes for your future - even if as a lawyer.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Firefox + Adblock + Filterset.G is your friend :)

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

I've got all the adblocker/popup blocker stuff. Lot of people out there still aren't that savvy. (my parents are the perfect example, they consider popups and ads the price of business for browsing the internet - they sometimes get frustrated using it)

Hopefully the site won't turn in that direction. Off course many things will probably change though, that's the circle of life. ;)

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

I have no problem with a couple of popups or ads at the top. Now six popups or embedded spyware that spams - that's different.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

In case it's helpful, I wanted to chime in with the Internet Brands perspective. My name is Stan Holt. I head up the publishing team at Internet Brands, and I've been working closely with Jason since the acquisition.

Needless to say, I am a big fan of the site, having come across it when I began researching my next car purchase, which will probably be another Honda Civic. I manage the editorial team at CarsDirect.com and Autos.com, so I thought I had a good handle on hybrids, but 45 minutes on GH reminded me that a community site offers insights and data that traditional editors can never match.

I thought the discussion boards were very useful, thanks in large part to moderators who kept the dialogue on-topic, injected personal and industry knowledge where appropriate and provided something lacking in many discussion-driven sites -- a kind of institutional memory that allows you to quote or paraphrase comments or data that may have been posted months before, providing a rapid response to the person asking the question while sparing regular contributors from having to answer the same question over and over again.

Another thing missing from many community sites is structured presentation of the collective wisdom. GreenHybrid's Real Hybrid Mileage Database seems to me to be the perfect wiki-like application for the automotive area. We plan on promoting the database as much as possible in the links to GH we put on CarsDirect, and it has been a prime talking-point when we've walked through the site with press and partner contacts.

In conversations that Jason and I have had with moderators and power users, we've been asked what GreenHybrid is going to get out of the deal. Other than additional infrastructure and development resources, the best answer is traffic and content. The traffic part is pretty straightforward -- we plan to generate a lot more contributors and readers to the site -- but let me elaborate a little on the content.

CarsDirect has what we like to think of as the most comprehensive and accurate pricing and spec data in the industry (as the only independent automotive ecommerce site still alive, data is even more critical to our bottom line than it is to research sites like Edmunds and KBB). While I would never want to undermine GreenHybrid's community focus, I think some GH users would welcome optional access to the specs, photos, pricing and other research content. If they're interested, they can pursue that info; if they're not, they won't click. Initially, we'd just link to CDc for that content, but the goal is to integrate it into GH so that users don't have to leave the site if they do want research content.

Other content that could be useful to the community includes our options configurator and compare tools, as well as our reviews and review summaries. The compare tool, for example, offers detailed comparisons on an unlimited number of models or even trims, so you can compare a Highlander Hybrid to a Ford Escape Hybrid or, if you really want to get detailed, stack up every Highlander Hybrid trim.

I don't want to ramble on too long. I just wanted to share some initial thoughts and get out there how excited I am to be working with Jason and the team that built GreenHybrid. We really hope to expand the site's resources and audience, and I hope as much of that team as possible stays involved for a long time.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Sounds like positive growth. Look forward to the reviews and summaries section.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Too bad, Google has already started spam filtering the newsletter. Never happened before.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by CarsDirect.com
 

I want to thank the greenhybrid.com community for their contributions to content of this site and offer congrats to Jason on his decision. Maintaining this is clearly not going to be a hobby for much longer. There are simply too many of us coming to the world of hybrids and I cannot imagine this is anywhere near self maintaining, even with donations.

So I will share a personal note about this community and what Jason has done.

I went surfing tonight looking for info on low rolling resistance tires. I tried REALLY hard, to find information on the www in a place other than greenhybrid and found little to none. Maybe one or two items.

On my FIRST search at greenhybrid, I found much more valuable information that helped me to move forward with my question. It is the community that makes this all work, and I hope we can continue to share with each other. I have been trying to share it with my few hybrid friends, and can see that with or without influence from the corporate world, it can continue.

I have moved up from original 37 mpg to 45 on my HCH THANKS TO YOU ALL and isn't that what it is all about.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by CarsDirect.com
 

I personally look {Forward} to Hearing from more Members that will come to GreenHybrid as time passes. I cannot see how that is going to be a Bad-Thing.

As far as comments about Jason selling the GreenHybrid Site. I have but one thing to say and that is:

Jason, you have done what you thought was right and you are the only one that really knows if you did it for only {Personal-Financial-Gain}. Or as you have stated here over & over, for the good of Greenhybrid and Yourself.

Which ever be the case I still wish you the "Best-In-Life". Good-Fortune:

Sincerely;

Terry

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by CarsDirect.com
 

Having been here on the very rawest ground level of GH when it wasn't even "live" and Jason was looking for input, to meeting Jason in Orlando just months after the '04 Prius was released I've been impressed with his dedication to his site.

I have definately not totally agreed with everything he did, but he had a vision for the site and clearly part of that vision was to make it successful and profitable and to that end he's clearly been successful.

I do hope that GH maintains the community atmosphere and wish that Jason was staying on as an official 'consultant' or something to see that that happens.

In any case, it does seem that congratulations are due and I'll follow the site to see how it evolves.

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by Internet Brands, Inc.
 

Hi Stan,

Great introduction and it sounds like you've got some good ideas there. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

My appologies for not seeing this note when it was first published.

Bob Wilson

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by CarsDirect.com
 

Jason, I just read about the acquisition. Congrats, I hope you made enought to pay for the rest of college and graduate school and buy a RX 400h for every member of your family. You deserve everything that you received. What a great country. Good Luck

Re: GreenHybrid Acquired by CarsDirect.com
 

Congratulations. I think this will be great for the GreenHybrid community! Access to more advanced research tools and databases will be great as will the chance to reach a wider audience. Good choice!