Online shoppers tended to rely more on Google than other search engines for their shopping-related searches in December, but eBay sent even more traffic to shopping sites, according to a Hitwise report issued Wednesday, writes Reuters. Some 11.1 percent of all December shopping-related visits originated at Google - 28 percent more than last year. eBay generated more than 13 percent. Yahoo Search and Microsoft's MSN Search drove 4.05 percent and 0.79 percent of retail visits, respectively.

Some 18.3 percent of all visits to shopping and classified websites originated with search engines.

Hitwise found that eBay, Amazon.com, Froogle and Shopzilla's BizRate were the four most popular online shopping sites originating from Google in December, accounting for 18.1 percent of the retailer traffic from Google.