The Petrol Price Tracker Gadget finds the price of unleaded, diesel, LPG and other fuel types at service stations near a given address / Supplied
GOOGLE has launched a web application to help motorists find the cheapest fuel in their area after a boom in searches for information about petrol prices.
The Petrol Price Tracker Gadget, created in partnership with petrol price monitoring company MotorMouth, finds the price of unleaded, diesel, LPG and other fuel types at service stations near a given address.
Google marketing manager Julian Sonego said the company had hit upon the idea after noticing the popularity of searches for information on petrol prices in Australia.
"Petrol prices are very near and dear to Australians` hearts," Mr Sonego said.
"If you look at (the results for) the term `petrol prices` you`ll see that the top couple of cities globally searching on petrol prices are in fact Australian cities."
When given an address or postcode, the application will display fuel prices at nearby outlets.
The results can be ranked by lowest price or distance from the given location, and can also be viewed using Google Maps.
The prices, supplied by MotorMouth, are updated 13 times per week – twice per day between Monday and Saturday and once on Sunday.
Mr Sonego said the application had prices for about 50 per cent of petrol stations in major cities at launch and that the figure would increase.
"We`re always interested to make products that Australians find useful (and) looking to organise information and make it useful," Mr Sonego said.
Google`s data analysis tool Insights shows Australia is the top-ranking country in the world for searches on "fuel prices" since 2004.
Australia is also second-ranked for searches on "petrol prices", after New Zealand and before the United Kingdom and South Africa.
The number of searches on both phrases has doubled in Australia in the last four years.
MotorMouth was formed in Brisbane in July 2000 and has since expanded to cover petrol prices in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart.
Mr Sonego said the price-monitoring company had the "most comprehensive data available" and collected the information by hand.
"They have people updating the prices – physically looking at petrol boards out on the road – twice a day," he said.
The Petrol Price Tracker Gadget is available to users of iGoogle, which lets users add extra information and applications to the Google homepage. It requires a free Google account.
