Google Launches Financial Information Service - How About a Portfolio?
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In order to create a portfolio with Google, I needed to have an account. As it happens, I already have one, so all I had to do was sign in. Google pulled up the last page I'd created, which was for Apple. A new "Portfolio" link appeared at the top of the page, which I clicked. It took me to a screen with three textboxes labeled "Symbol," "Price," and "Shares," and one button, "Add to Portfolio." I put in the symbol for Apple. A horizontal gray bar appeared, with columns labeled "Symbol," "Last Trade," "Change," "Buy Price," "Shares," "Investment," "Current Value," "Gain/Loss," and "Delete." The only information filled in was in the first three columns. Most of the information seemed pretty self-explanatory to me; it put just about everything you'd want to know about a stock in your portfolio at your fingertips.
There was a new button on the screen labeled "Edit portfolio." Clicking that allowed me to fill in "Buy Price" and "Shares." It also replaced the "Edit portfolio" button with two others, "Save changes and "Cancel." Just to test it out, I typed in 50.00 and 100, respectively, then hit "Save changes." Acting like a spreadsheet, the application filled in the rest of the information for me, showing that I was in the green by nearly $1000. (I wish!). Clicking a box that appeared under the "Delete" section got rid of the information.
So, after having tried it out, what do I think of Google Finance? It's basic, to the point of being almost rudimentary. But it has some rather nice features, and I like the way it places so many things right at your fingertips. It really lets you interact with the data in whatever way you feel ready to handle. I can't say whether it's better or worse than its competitors, because time constraints did not permit me to compare all of them head to head. But I understand that Yahoo! offers many more features, including links to retirement planning, bonds, options, and downloadable spreadsheets for making finance calculations. Yahoo! and MSN are also beginning to offer original content.
I expect, though, that Google may start adding those features over the next few months. Right now Google Finance is a workable beta that particularly beginning investors should find helpful for keeping track of their stock portfolios. It still has its flaws; for example, it currently covers only some international companies, and it is not yet available for countries outside of North America (though Google is looking to expand in both those areas). Considering that this is still a "beta," I expect it won't be too long before Google has a major contender on its hands.
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