Google launches petrol price tracker

This week Google has launched a new system to track fuel prices and keep consumers up to date with the cheapest prices in their area. 

The Petrol Price Tracker Gadget was launched after the search engine noted an increase in the number of searches for fuel prices.  The system finds the price of unleaded, diesel, LPG and other fuel types at service stations based on the location or postcode supplied by the user. 

The gadget was created in partnership with petrol monitoring company Motormouth, which supplies updated petrol price data to Google 13 times per week - twice per day between Monday and Saturday and once on Sunday.

The results of a petrol search can be ranked by lowest price or distance from the location supplied, and the user can also view the location of service stations on Google Maps.  According to early users, the tracker doesn't have data from all petrol stations, particularly outisde major cities, but it is an important step forward in the monitoring of petrol prices in Australia.

The Petrol Price Tracker Gadget is available through iGoogle, which is a personalised Google homepage that users can add applications to (calendars, news feeds, games etc.) - sign up for a free account here.