Google today took the wraps off the beta version of Google Finance.
Google Finance is a financial portal, a la Yahoo Finance. The look & feel are clearly Googlesque, from the sparse entry page to the beta label that will probably be there forever. The technology is clearly Google as well, featuring dynamic charts that can be stretched and moved, with corresponding content dynamically updated. The charts are built using Flash, with Ajax to enable instant refresh of the relevant news stories for the day(s) of the chart that you click on.
Another innovative aspect of the UI is the way that they provide snapshots of the executives profiled. While the basic display is a simply tabular list, as you mouse over each one, a profile pops up showing more details, along with a photo. The executive profiles come from Google's index of the underlying websites, as shown in this example for Informatica.
The portal is built using content from various content providers, namely Reuters, D&B, Morningstar, Hoovers and Revere Data. What I found most surprising was that peer group charts, research reports and insider trading information came courtesy of Yahoo Finance.
With the dozens and dozens of financial content providers, it seems strange that these two arch foes would strike a licensing agreement but perhaps portals also make strange bedfellows.
While I am not sure that the world needs another finance portal, Google can certainly leverage their search traffic to "guide" users to this portal. It's got a very nice, clean interface and over time could serve as a strong platform for delivery of additional financial content.
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