(23 May 2011 – Australia) Google’s ambitions to move into the personal finance market stepped up a gear with the launch in the US of Google Advisor.The site was designed to help consumers quickly find relevant financial products from many providers and compare them side-by-side.
The search engine giant first began testing a mortgage comparison tool in 2009 and has added other financial products such as credit cards, CDs, current and savings accounts.
Google Advisor rolls all of these disparate tools into a single Web page, providing a personal finance comparison tool where users can compare rates and fees from multiple providers according to their own pre-defined criteria.
The US launch follows Google’s acquisition earlier this year of UK price comparison site BeatThatQuote for £37.7 million (A$57.5 million).