Google Launches Financial Information Service
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Unless you actually make it your business to do so, it's very tricky to keep up with all of Google's new services. With the search engine giant's track record for shaking up the industry with each new "beta," you know whatever comes out of Google Labs is sure to be worth a look. Today, we're going to look at Google Finance.
This service provides financial news, stock quotes, charts, and other data to its users. It has a number of novel features, such as the ability to look at financial news along side historical price charts over various time frames. News results change with the dates. It could be a very handy way to connect the price of a company's stock with what was happening to the company at that time.
This offering didn't come out of nowhere. Finance websites have proven to be immensely popular with web surfers. ComScore Media Metrix reported that such sites attracted 161 million visitors in January. That represents an increase of nearly a quarter over the previous year. Venerable search engine Yahoo! runs one of the most popular ones; its 10-year-old finance site boasted 34.3 million visitors in January, handily beating Microsoft's MSN Money by more than 10 million visitors.
Yahoo! has said that it isn't worried about Google's new finance offering. It won't even discuss what effect the new site will have on the field. In an interview, Yahoo! Finance General Manager Peggy White said that "Rather than concentrate on any one given competitor, we really look at creating superior products and a superior customer experience."
So should Yahoo! and MSN be worried? Well, Google Finance doesn't carry advertisements yet, but it will no doubt be only a matter of time. While Yahoo! is not as advertising-dependent as Google, such a move is likely to cut into Yahoo!'s business. In the interests of those who might want to use the service (for keeping track of their finances, or advertising with, or both), I thought it might be interesting to poke around Google Finance and see what it has to offer.
Next: Checking out Google Finance >>
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