Earlier this month, tons of technology companies gathered in San Diego at DEMO to debut a plethora of cool new products. Being a self-professed geek -- and a penny pincher -- I was excited to see a new program called Avego, which was demoed by Mapflow and put an interesting spin on carpooling.

We all have a rough idea of how traditional carpooling works in the US. An area where it is weak is that for the most part you are only carpooling with people you know rather than individuals who are going the same route as you.

Avego turns this model on its head and uses real time location data and cell phones to find other riders who want to be part of the route you are currently taking. For example, you could advertise an opening on the way to work in the morning and another person halfway there may ask to join your carpool for that trip only. These same kinds of interactions occur whenever you take a trip be it to the grocery store, movies or wherever.

Avego isn't just looking to change carpooling, but also human behavior by trying to get people to start sharing rides and also sharing them with a stranger, no small task on any front. It seems it has thought this through and it's using two of the best motivators currently at its disposal; the desire for many people to go green and the desire of more people to earn green! To facilitate the ride sharing Avego charges the rider 30 cents per mile, an amount cheaper than driving on their own or grabbing a taxi, and then pays the driver about 85% of that for the trip, thus providing motivation for all of the involved parties.

With average gas prices peaking over $4, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you can save money by carpooling. Even though the savings associated with carpooling is clear to me and my carpool partner some people may not realize exactly how much you can save by carpooling.

Thankfully RideSearch.com provides a great calculator to figure out just how much it costs you to schlep to and from work each month. The calculator even takes the maintenance costs of your vehicle into the final cost calculation. The calculator is only one tool they provide, the main draw is that you can use RideSearch.com to find other people to carpool with.

The service helps connect you with carpoolers in the area and takes into account a myriad of preferences for sorting and finding carpool partners. For example you can set your preferences to indicate you only want to share rides with females who don't smoke, have working air conditioning and will alternate days of driving. Of course the more restrictions you start adding in to the mix the fewer applicants will be remaining.