Ever wondered where the cheapest petrol or diesel or LPG is around your house or near your work? GasBuddy, a fuel-finding app which has over 15 million active users in the US, is launching today in Australia.

Flongle is a new crowdsourcing website that assists customers in finding the best home loan by making banks and mortgage brokers bid against each other. Billed as the world’s first “mortgage contest”, the site allows home buyers to post their ideal mortgage anonymously. You can then sit back and watch as banks, non-bank lenders and brokers compete to "win" the loan.

Crowdsourcing can be a great way to generate income, ideas and support for fledgling commercial projects. But there are also potential dangers. A new scientific investigation has found that while crowdsourcing is an efficient way to achieve outcomes by tapping into the skills of large groups, it also attracts malicious behaviour among participants. In short; the benefits of crowdsourcing may not outweigh the pitfalls caused by its openness of entry. (This is especially true if your project has anything to do with the gaming community.)

Yatango Mobile is the latest telco provider to spring up on the Optus network. Like Amaysim, TPG and the rest, it promises lower monthly rates than the market's major players -- but the way it goes about this is intriguingly different. Billed as the world's first telecommunication provider to fully integrate itself into Facebook through the Open Graph API, the service allows customers to shape their own plans, earn mobile credit and land better deals via crowdsourcing.

You've forgotten Valentine's Day again, haven't you? Time to make a decision: do you scramble for a meaningful gift in a desperate, last-minute frenzy? Do you hand over some tatty supermarket flowers and accept your fate with a rueful grin? Or do you launch into a clearly improvised diatribe against the commercialisation of romance and hope for the best? Alternatively, you could pay someone else a small fee to sort the whole thing out for you.

Crowsourcing service Airtasker has offered an iPhone app since July this year. It now has an Android app as well, letting you seek out 'runners' for paid casual work. It's a free download for Android users.

iOS: Need a good restaurant suggestion in Venice or a good club in Boston? Asknative provides a global iPhone-based community that can answer your questions before and while you're travelling.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo are great platforms for people to fund good ideas or projects, but navigating those sites to find the great projects amidst the thousands of others isn't easy. So here's Outgrow.me, which shows you only the successful products/projects you can pre-order or buy now.

Airtasker, the crowdsourcing service we've featured before, has expanded its coverage to Brisbane and Melbourne and rolled out its iPhone app.

Cloud services make sense for many business IT projects, but shifting to the cloud requires careful planning. This list of questions to consider when moving to the cloud can make that process much easier and more effective.

When Google purchased US restaurant guide provider Zagat back in September 2011, I mentally filed it on the long list of Google services that we would never see in Australia. So Google's announcement that it is surveying Sydney residents ahead of launching a local Zagat presence caught me by surprise.

Kickstarter is a platform for people to take ideas, get funding and turn them into a reality. It made it possible for me (and others) to apply an iPhone screen protector without bubbles and dust. It proved some people still really care about printed materials. It helped my cousin make a short film.

Got a small task you need completed -- let's say assembling an IKEA bookshelf or cleaning your disgusting oven -- and don't have the time to do it yourself? Airtasker lets you advertise to find a local who might be willing to do the job for a small fee.

Crowdsourced reviews and directory service Yelp has made its long-expected debut in Australia, launching sites for Sydney and Melbourne that collect together reviews of restaurants, shops, hotels and, in the words of Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, "anywhere that has an address".

Crowdsourced design site 99Designs has launched an official Australian presence. For local users, that means charging in Australian dollars, plus an Australian support number during weekday business hours.

iOS: LocalHero is a new service that aims to connect users with subject matter experts in their communities to help answer questions, provide advice, and offer informed opinions. The service connects to your Facebook account to determine your skills and location, and uses it to connect you with friends and others on LocalHero looking for advice.

Android/iPhone: MORF is a new app that suggests unorthodox uses for everyday items, and it aims to do it even better by allowing users to add their own ideas to the mix. A Morf is basically a clever use for an everyday item, or a creative solution to an everyday problem. Some of the already available Morfs include removing bandaids with shampoo, using beer to remove coffee stains, and getting seriously MacGyver with skin care by using kitty litter as a facial scrub. Don't worry, it's not used kitty litter.

Light pollution is a problem that, in addition to being unpleasant to the star-gazer's eyes, has a potentially greater impact on the environment that we do not yet totally understand. A group of scientists are trying to get a better idea as to how it affects us in real terms by asking viewers to submit their light pollution views via their website.

Sites dedicated to helping flooding victims have proliferated rapidly in the wake of the natural disasters in Queensland, Victoria and NSW. BBQ For Floods has a simple mission that anyone can take part in: promoting having a barbeque on Australia Day and using that event to raise funds for flood assistance charities.