Google Cashes in with Finance Portal

Google on Tuesday introduced a new section of its site that would focus on financial information, including stock prices and news. What makes Google Finance different, however, is its charts -- investors would be able to see with more clarity what news stories are causing the stock to move.

Using headlines culled from Google News, the chart would be able to show the user whether a certain event or story is having an effect on the stock price itself. The charts can be moved through time periods by clicking and dragging and zooming in for more detailed information, much like the functionality used in Google's mapping product.

Whereas previously stock quote information could be obtained by entering a ticker symbol into the search bar, entering the symbol now would provide a link to the proper Google finance page. Furthermore, users would be able to save their lists of commonly visited stock pages into a "portfolio."

Google Finance team members A.C. Narendran and Katie Jacobs Stanton said the goal of the project was to improve the experience for searching for financial information. "We hope Google Finance lives up to that aim by offering a fresh perspective on company-related searches," they said.

As well as providing links to news headlines on the stock in question, the site would include blog posts regarding the stock, as well as moderated discussion groups on the company. The information is not only limited to public companies -- Google Finance includes information for privately-owned businesses as well, the search engine said.

While some have said such a service is long overdue, others have said the first incarnation is a disappointment, and will take quite awhile to catch up to the capabilities of other services.

"My inner cynic says that the reason Google launched this service this quickly is because it wants to capture those high [advertising] dollars from stock and mortgage brokerages," noted Internet pundit Om Malik said.

"Given how entrenched Yahoo Finance is in people's lives, Google cannot be incrementally better. A couple of AJAX widgets will not make me switch from Yahoo Finance to Google Finance."