The Best Place To Do Your Online Shopping Research

When it comes to research into prices, features, news and reviews, about products I'm thinking about buying online, my preferred search engine of choice is Google, so it comes as no surprise to discover that 87.26% of Australians prefer Google too.

The latest monthly report from Experian Hitwise, shows that Google has strengthened its dominance in the Australian search market, with an increase of 2.8% between January and February this year.

Google Australia accounted for 74.61 per cent and Google.com 12.65 per cent of all Australian searches conducted during February 2010. Overall accounting for 87.26 of the local search market.

The main reason that I first started using Google Web Search -- over 10 years ago now -- was simplicity, and it's one of the main reasons I still use Google today. The clean and simple user interface lets me focus on my searches and results, with no distractions. In fact Google recently made a neat change to web search, helping to keep your focus on the all important search box. When you first land on the Google search home page, you'll only see the logo, search box and search buttons, with all other elements hidden until you move your mouse.

Competition in the Australian search market is certainly a good thing, and I'm sure that Google is paying close attention to Bing and Yahoo search, but I think other search engines just make Google stronger, because in comparison, more people realise just how good Google really is.

For me, Google is still the best place to do my online shopping research, and I can't see that changing anytime soon.