Going back in time ten years, 'online car insurance quotes', meant that instead of receiving a wad of papers in the mail, you received quotes via email from an agent. You would have needed to have actually spoken to the agent in person or at least over the telephone.

If a potential client wouldn't personally come in to the office for a meeting, most insurance agents, back then, wouldn't even consider giving them a quote. It used to be ridiculous to consider that agents wouldn't use their greatest strategy for obtaining customers.

A lot has changed for relationship-focused agents as they are being replaced more and more by price-focused, highly automated website sales. The young and urban demographic, which prefers the web to all other media, are the prime movers of this change. As companies make the change towards websites, the older and less technologically savvy customers will be forced to use these websites as their agents become less effective in comparison.

It is more and more common for car insurance quotes to be offered on line. As customers are increasingly occupied with other day to day activities, they have become increasingly more comfortable with online purchasing, even for major items. And, as their awareness of their options has grown along with their technological proficiency, their demand for more self-service opportunities has grown as well.

Formerly unknown car insurance firms have emerged as viable entities. Customers started looking online for free auto insurance quotes with no strings attached and discounted auto insurance. The market leaders were slow in responding. Smaller companies took advantage of this hesitation, focused on the change in customer appetites and become national players in the process.

Now that the huge market leaders have caught up, every insurance company in the US seems to offer online car insurance quotes. Only now, there seem to be more of them than ever before. This is, of course, not a bad thing. Competition is in the consumer's best interest.

The role of technology has changed in the search for discount car insurance, but because pronouncements of "big savings" and "free quotes" have become the norm, it is important to remember how long it used to take, just ten years ago, and spend a little bit of time comparing the offers. There are still great companies out there fighting for your business, looking to make a name for themselves.