Google has launched Google Finance Beta, a way for users to search for and find financial information about public and private companies, as well as mutual funds. Google Finance is designed to offer users a new way to understand stock performance.
Some of the features in Google Finance Beta include: Interactive Charts, where Google Finance maps market data with corresponding news stories in one interactive chart, so users can track news to stock performance. In addition, users can click and drag on the charts to see different time periods, and zoom in/out for more detailed information; Search, Google Finance lets users search for public and private companies, as well as mutual funds, using both company names and ticker symbols. Users can also search for companies by the names of management team members; News, Google Finance integrates the Google News service, which gathers stories from English news sources worldwide. Google News is clustered in groups by news topic, rather than listed by date, so users do not have to scroll through multiple headlines on the same news story; Blogs, Google Finance incorporates blog postings for related company information from Google Blog Search; Discussion Groups, Google Finance connects users with each other by offering discussion forums; and Portfolios, Google Finance offers a way to create and maintain a portfolio of stocks and mutual funds.
Google Finance is a free service, accessible from the Web site, the symbols on users' Google personalized homepages and Google Desktop Sidebars, or by entering a ticker symbol into any Google search box.
