Google India on Tuesday said Indian consumers are ahead of the US and Europe

RELATED ARTICLES Google completes Motorola Mobility acquisition; CEO quits Seven Indians selected for Intel science fair in Pittsburgh Nepal plane crash kills 15, including 13 Indians Google executive Nikesh Arora to get $8m in lieu of stock

in using internet to research for car and bikes purchases. The search technology firm released a report saying the auto vertical witnessed huge growth in online searches registering 110 per cent and 84 per cent year-on-year in 2009 and 2010 respectively on Google search.

According to ‘Google India Auto Report’, the top-nine most searched car brands are Maruti Suzuki India, Honda Siel Cars India, Hyundai Motor India, General Motors India, Tata Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Ford India, Volkswagen India and Fiat India. It said vehicle shopping queries accounted 49 per cent of all auto related queries on Google. Entry and mid cars in price range of Rs 2,00,000 to Rs 6,00,000 are most searched. Diesel cars are big in demand and registered triple digit growth in 2010 as search queries for diesel cars saw 52 per cent growth in April to May 2011, when petrol prices increased by Rs 5 per litre, it added.

“The report shows how crucial the internet has become in influencing purchase decisions of consumers. We’ve seen over 150 per cent growth in revenues from auto sector in 2010 and we expect the share of auto advertising spends on digital to grow significantly in the future,” VP and MD, Google India, Rajan Anandan said. However, he refused to share the base number of searches picked for the report.