Travel tops the list of purchases made online. Consumer Reports has been testing new search engines that are supposed to make it easier to find the lowest prices.

The vast majority of travelers now book their tickets on the Internet.

Consumer Reports took a look at the big three travel web sites, Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity, and compared them to three newcomers.

Consumer Reports' Sarah Goralski says, "Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz only search the travel agency reservation systems and their own databases. The others are search engines and they scour travel sites all over the Web looking for the best deals."

These search-engine travel sites are Kayak, Mobissimo and Sidestep.

In four trials, Consumer Reports found the search engines located the lowest prices in every case. Sometimes you'd just save a few dollars but other times the differences were dramatic.

For example, on a flight from Boston to Los Angeles the best price Orbitz could get was $300 on America West. Kayak, Mobissimo and Sidestep found a $200 ticket on Airtran. And there's another advantage with the search engine sites.

Ms. Goralski says, "The big three all charge booking fees, anywhere from $5 to $16. The search engines take you directly to the airline and hotel websites and they charge no fee."

If you're booking tickets for a family, that can save you a lot.

Consumer Reports says even with these new travel search engines, it's still worth comparison shopping. That's because, although Kayak, Mobissimo and Sidestep. check a lot of websites, they don't cover the entire universe of online travel prices.