Careful buyers have a new reference to check out before they spend their hard-earned cash. Google has announced a beta preview of Froogle Product Reviews, as an add-on to its Froogle shopping engine that provides both product and store ratings.

Whether consumers are attempting to minimize buyer's remorse or merely acting on impulse, Froogle has also been updated with a "Shopping List" feature similar to what is found on most e-commerce Web sites.

Froogle's product ratings are essentially a rendition of Consumer Reports where feedback is supplied by other users. It is important to point out that while the ratings can inform consumers, they are still opinion. At the present time, Froogle Product Reviews are limited to consumer electronics and personal computers.

When a product is selected, Froogle will display an aggregated rating score as well as the total number of reviews. According to a Google press release, user can search within reviews for specific phrases such as "battery life" or "photo quality." Froogle sorts reviews by relevance or date.

Froogle has also caught on to word of mouth advertising as an efficient way to allow customers speak out about their experiences -- good or bad -- with online stores.

Another recent addition to the site is called "Shopping List." Shopping List saves the location of a customer's favorite product pages and makes holiday wish lists that can be shared with others.

Froogle is now available to shoppers in the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as the United States.