financial reflections

Whenever Google does something, the world takes notice. So when they opened a finance site, I just had to take a look.

It takes guts to get into a game 10 years late and have much chance at succeeding.  That is, unless you’re Google.  They opened Google Finance, which puts them in direct competition with Yahoo! Finance, the decade-old industry leader.  Right now, Yahoo! Finance is my site of choice, so I wanted to compare how Google Finance stacked up to the competition.

The hits:

• Flash powered charts - The charts remind me of the slick interface Google Maps uses.  There’s a great feel to the user interface that has always frustrated me with Yahoo! Finance’s charts.  The obvious downside is that the charts require the latest version of Macromedia’s Flash Player to run.  That will limit a few users, but probably not many - especially the more sophisticated investors who will be the site’s bread and butter.
• Symbols or company names work in search - One big complaint I had about Yahoo! Finance was the fact that I couldn’t just type in “Google” (or even “Yahoo” for that matter) and see that companies stock.  I have to use the “symbol lookup” feature which requires an extra click and page load to deal with.
• Blogs - Granted, I have a personal interest in blogs, but Google wisely took a page out of Yahoo! News’ book here by adding blogs to company results.

The misses:

• It’s too bland - InternetOutsider writes, “The Google Finance beta landing page couldn’t be less revolutionary.”  He goes on to gush over the charts like I did, but my initial reaction was much the same.  Google has a good start, but has to provide more up front to draw users in.  My guess is that they will.  SiliconBeat mentions how similar Google and Yahoo! Finance are, but notes that the trick for Google is to be just good enough that people will try it out.
• Only North America - Google started simple, which might not work for the higher end users they will want in the long run, but with US stocks, they hit the broadest base possible (by far) from the start.  They do say that they will add other countries in the future.

Google also has discussion rooms, and other social networking features to match or beat Yahoo!  It will be interesting to see how this battle plays out between the Pepsi and Coke of the internet.