Google has just unveiled their new service, Google Finance. I understand that this means absolutely nothing to a lot of the readers of this blog, being that they or bored by the stock market or just don’t follow it. I, on the other hand, do follow the market and am a very small investor, with 10 shares in Apple Computer and 10 shares in SanDisk Corporation. So, if you don’t really want to know about Google Finance, read no further.
Google Finance has a very nice interface. It is sleek and easy-to-use, just like all of Google’s other products. The actual pages for the stocks are organized beautifully. Each page for a stock features the current price on top, along with the same basic stock info. such as Market Cap. Volume, Highs and Lows, and Change that you would find in the stock charts of a newspaper. Then it has a chart of the stock, which if you move your cursor along, will show you in little text in the upper-right hand corner of the stock its price and volume on that one day. There are also "flags" throughout the chart that are labeled with letters. Each "flag" corresponds to a news story from Google News on the right of the chart that is also labeled with that letter. The flag appears on the chart at the time that the news story was published. When you click on the flag, the news story becomes highlighted. Below the news stories and charts, there is also a summary of the company, basic facts about it including number of employees and HQ location, and the management of the company (who’s CEO, COO, etc.). And below that you have financial figures and ratios about the company. Google also added two other things unique to Google Finances. They show blog posts on the web (from Google Blog Search) and posts in discussions (from Google Groups) that have to do with the company. Now that is cool. Google also now includes a portfolio for your stocks, so you can see how much money you’ve gained or lost in the stock market.
Overall, Google Finance is very, very cool. It’s trying to go head-to-head with companies like Yahoo and Microsoft which also offer very similar stock analyzing and tracking services, but of course, Google outdoes them with its easy-to-use interface and its own search technology built right in. I really think that Google has truly matured in the finance department.
technorati tags: google finance, money, stock, stocks, stock market, finance, finances, google
Aaron Freedman is a 16 year old who's very passionate and knowledgeable about technology and journalism. He enjoys working on his two main projects, 
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