Google has strengthened its position in the online comparison shopping sphere with the acquisition of Beatthatquote.com. The British site lets shoppers search, compare, and apply for lower rates and cheaper prices on a whole range of products including personal finance, insurance, legal services, utilities and retail. Google paid $71 million for Beatthatquote.com.

Founded in 2006, BeatthatQuote.com has achieved impressive growth and was named the U.K.'s Fastest Growing Website in 2007 due to its increase in unique visitors across 2007, even beating social network giant Facebook, which also saw a massive surge in popularity in the U.K. over this period.

Beatthatquote managing director John Paleomylites had this to say about the acquisition on the company’s website: “We think this deal is a tremendous opportunity for our company to develop new and innovative options for personal finance in the U.K. Our team is excited about becoming a part of Google. We look forward to working with their engineers to create new tools making it easier for consumers to choose the right financial products. We think we can offer more transparency and better pricing information than existing online offerings.”

Beatthatquote makes its money in one of two ways: By introducing the consumer to a particular product provider, the company receives a commission for the introduction; and alternatively, by introducing the consumer to a specialist advisor who provides shoppers with expert advice, and in turn, pays Beatthatquote.com a commission for the introduction.