Game Boy Advance -- a handheld electronic toy from Nintendo -- has topped my daughter's wish list for the last six months. With her own savings and a parental contribution, she recently purchased the toy at a discount through an eBay auction. Other Internet resources also offer affordable options.

In fact, there are several online shopping portals that compare vendor/retail prices at a variety of outlets. Those services are helpful for researching the best deals over the Internet or at traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Those outlets include Shopzil la.com, PriceRunner.com, Shopping.com, Pricegrab ber.com and NexTag.com.

Online comparison shopping is a popular trend, even with consumers who are uncomfortable making online purchases. Traditionalists use the Internet to compare retail prices and then make their actual purchases at standard stores. In fact, 70 percent of online shoppers browse through multiple Internet channels before every purchase, according to a recent survey from Shopzilla, an online index of 30 million products at over 50,000 stores. But for 64 percent of shoppers surveyed, comparison shopping is a time-consuming process involving multiple visits to four sites on average.

Online portals offer short-cuts and even insightful product reviews/descriptions. But how reliable are the price savings? In a survey released on Sept. 13, PriceRunner.com claimed that five leading online portals beat out Wal mart.com and Amazon.com across a variety of merchandise. Sponsored by the publicly traded parent company of PriceRunner.com, the survey was conducted by DataCo, a statistical analytical company based in the Chicago area. The survey used a selection of 48 popular products listed on a specific day by the various Internet sites, according to Gary Mayer, managing director for DataCo.

Based on that methodology, the five search engines outperformed Walmart and Amazon on more than 95 percent of the merchandise. PriceRunner -- the sponsor of the survey-- either tied or offered the lowest prices on 24 occasions. Shopzilla had 12 of the lowest prices and Shopping.com had 11, with NexTag sporting 10 of the best deals and PriceGrabber showing four of the lowest prices.

Keep in mind that the survey represents only a snapshot of prices during a single day. What's more, electronics dominated the field of top-selling online merchandise and the results appeared skewed because Walmart.com did not offer merchandise in 17 of the 48 categories. The survey included one vacuum cleaner, one toy, a stroller, a bottle of perfume, a grill and a treadmill. The rest of the products were cameras, printers, DVD players and other high-tech gadgets/electronics. The survey would have been more insightful if it had included a broader range of merchandise, such as books, office supplies, beauty products and clothing.

Nevertheless, given the popularity of online purchases of high-tech goods, the survey was informative.

In the price check for an Apple iPod20GB MP3 Player, PriceRunner offered the best price ($270.39), followed by Pricegrabber at $275. NexTag, Shopzilla and Shopping.com all charge about $279 and Amazon was the highest at $284.90, according to the survey. Walmart.com did not offer the product. The smart box has a larger sampling of survey results.