For most people, the internet is a real boon for quickly finding what previously took hours, if not days, of telephone enquiries and trawling suburban streets.

Not only that, but many believe the internet also saves money, as well as time, when they shop around.

One example of this phenomenon is the rise of the price comparison website, which quickly compares prices for financial services or consumer goods.

No wonder we feel smart when a few minutes on the computer saves time and money when we have to renew our car our household insurance.

But concerns are emerging that price comparison sites might not be the honest brokers they appear to be.

The consumer group Which? recently warned that the same quotation request to three different sites could produce three different answers.

This finding has sparked fears that the sites favour those providers offering them the best financial deal; after all, the business model for these sites is for there to be no charge to the consumer, but for providers to pay referral fees to the price comparison site.

Price comparison sites naturally dispute such a cynical view, saying they all have slightly different search processes, which lead to different recommendations.

Another issue is that some companies, such as insurer Direct Line make a play of only dealing direct and not via middlemen, so they will not be featured on price comparison sites.

As a result, some observers believe that price comparison sites can be opaque in the operation of the comparison services.

There is no hard evidence of any wrongdoing by price comparison sites, but the area of online price comparisons appears to be one where regulation is lagging behind developments on the ground.

It is something of an anomaly that an insurance broker comparing insurance quotes for a client has to be regulated, but a website does not.

Judging by the amount of TV advertising they can buy, large sums of money are being generated by UK price comparison sites, so it is unlikely that they will escape future regulation.