Access to Internet means access to information. The more information you have the better your decisions are. This is applicable to every aspect of our lives. As a consumer, information is very valuable to you to get the best deal possible.

People who are on the wrong side of this digital divide are the ones who are loosing the benefits this wonderful medium offers.

As people become more and more sophisticated online consumers, the general-purpose search engines fall short to cater to the kind of search requirements consumers have. It is not possible to get the quotes, for example, from all the vendors for a particular model of digital camera using a regular search engine. This is the void filled by the dedicated Product Comparison Websites.

There was a time when the Product Comparison Sites offered gadgets that only techies would be interested in, such as, cameras and computers. With the increased access to Internet to general population, and the awareness of the advantages of using product comparison sites, the situation has changed now. Product Comparison Sites are getting popular because of the wide variety of the products they cover, be it art or flowers or even the travel and camping related equipment.

Like the regular search engines, product search engines these days do crawl the retailer's websites to gather up-to-date data on products. This automation has contributed to the growth of the number of products these sites can offer comparison services to.

In an interesting paper titled "The Value of Information in an Online Consumer Electronics Market" three professors Michael Baye, a University of Indiana professor; John Morgan, a University of California at Berkeley professor; and Patrick Scholten, a Bentley College professor attempt to quantify the benefits this information revolution has brought to the consumers. They chose to quantify "the value of information provided by the Internet Price Comparison Sites". Price Comparison Services, according to these researchers "provide substantial value to consumers, and that this value will be enhanced over time as additional firms use e-tail distribution channels". This paper studied the prices compiled from various Product comparison sites for duration of eight months and the professors conclude that there is an average saving of upto 16% with the use of Product Comparison Sites.

One area that consumers have been vary of, is fraudulent vendors. Product Comparison sites have started taking steps to guard their users against fraudulent vendors, such as vendor ratings. Genuine retailers have been taking steps increase the level of trust consumers can keep in their products or services. With increased level of trust comes the explosion of usage.

In summary, Product Comparison Sites are becoming popular, a.Because of the void that normal search engines cannot fill, b.Automation has caused the explosion of products and services these sites can compare, c.Consumers can get an average 6% price benefit (and more if coupled with Coupons) which is huge and d.Steps being taken by these sites fraudulent vendors has increased consumer confidence in the listings.

If you are a retailer who is yet to list your product with the Product Comparison Sites, I would say, Wake Up!. Register your feed today. Consumers are searching for you.