Google adds a finance site to take on Yahoo, Microsoft
Posted on : Tue, 21 Mar 2006 08:42:00 GMT | Author : Peter Goodyear
News Category : Internet
SAN FRANCISCO: Google is coming with a financial news, stock quote and chat service that will be in direct competition with online finance information market leaders Yahoo and Microsoft, the company announced late Monday. A beta version, Google Finance, is now available which has keyword search facilities helping the users to get financial-related information on public and private companies and mutual funds.
The information comprises financial news, stock quotes, charts and data, which Google is sourcing from, content providers including Reuters, Hoover's, Morningstar, Interactive Data and Revere Data. The site will have advertising as well, Google said.
The beta version is available on the Google site, the link is located at the top of general Google search results pages when users search for stock or corporate information that appear to be finance related. The url is can also be reached via finance.google.com.
The user is able to view financial news alongside historical price related charts over different time frames. As the user changes the timeframe, the news results too change.
Google Finance also identifies finance-related information within Google News, which is the search company's general information section with some 4,500 sources.
The new site has facilities like setting up stock portfolios, tracking mutual fund performance and links to other online finance sites including Yahoo, MSN, Dow Jones' MarketWatch and AOL and regulatory filings from EDGAR Online.
According to the company, Google Finance was conceived as a part-time project by Google engineers working in Bangalore, India.
Google's vice president for search products and user experience Marissa Mayer said the immediate focus of the service is on the user and the product. Revenue possibilities will be considered later.
An important feature of the service is bulletin boards for discussions on financial topics. The discussions will be moderated by Google employees to ensure the quality.
Google Finance's product manager Katie Jacobs Stanton said the company had conducted a poll among its users and the two things that came up were maps and finance.
She said the service offers interactive charts annotated with news stories to help investors decide why stocks are rising or falling. The site is targeted at investors in the U.S and the company will have international versions later.
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