Google, the most-used internet search engine, is adding a finance site to its stable of offerings, a move that sparks fresh competition for Microsoft and Yahoo!
Online search engine leader Google Inc is devoting a section of its Web site to information about the stock market and corporate America, filling a gaping product hole as it continues to battle for Internet traffic with rivals Yahoo Inc, MSN and America Online.
The Web search leader said that it has begun offering a trial version of the service called Google Finance at: http://finance.google.com, which uses a keyword search system to help consumers target information on public and private companies and mutual funds.
Google Finance primarily provides financial news, stock quotes, charts and data. In its trial form, the site is far less comprehensive than established financial sites such as those from Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp.’s MSN, and America Online’s Money & Finance and CNNMoney.com, both of which are units of Time Warner Inc.
We are going to provide quick, easy access to financial information … by taking complex financial data and making it more digestible, said Katie Jacobs-Stanton, a Google Finance product manager.
Many of the Google features, including stock market quotes and charts, mirror Yahoo’s finance section, which has been available for the past decade.
Yahoo operates the Web’s most visited finance site with 31.4 million unique visitors worldwide, according to comScore Media Metrix.
MSN’s Money section ranked second with 21.9 million worldwide visitors followe by AOL’s finance section with 14.3 million visitors worldwide, comScore said.
Web surfers spent on average of 54 minutes per visit at Yahoo’s finance section, giving the company more opportunity to serve up ads.
Although it is just trying to catch up now, Google believes its finance section eventually will outshine its rivals. "We feel this is going to change the face of finance sites," said Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products and user experience.
The site opens a new front in Google’s battle with Microsoft and Yahoo, operators of the two most popular financial websites in the US. California-based Google is adding new sites including maps and news to sell more advertising. A fourth of US internet users access finance sites, according to researcher ComScore Networks.
“We polled our users and asked where we can add value,” Jacobs-Stanton said. “The two things were maps and finance.”
Google Finance offers interactive charts annotated with news stories to help investors decide why stocks are rising or falling, Jacobs-Stanton said. Users can scroll through a stock’s history chart by clicking and dragging their mouse, she said.
The new Google site relies on information from a variety of financial publishers and data providers including: “Reuters Group Plc, Hoover’s Inc., Morningstar Inc., Interactive Data Corp. and Revere Data LLC.” Google plans to introduce advertising eventually, Stanton said.
Yahoo Finance, the leader among online financial sites, offers not only many of the features Google Finance does but also links to stock research, retirement planning, bonds, options and downloadable spreadsheets for making finance calculations.
Peggy White, general manager of Yahoo Inc.’s Yahoo Finance, said the 10-year old finance site is aimed at everyone from entry-level investors to professional money managers.
"The Yahoo Finance customer does not have any one given customer profile … We talk to all clients across the finance spectrum," she said.
Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, and Yahoo, the most-visited internet site, make money from their finance websites by showing ads from firms including Fidelity Investments and Scottrade.
Google did not plan to show ads at first, although they may be added in the future, spokeswoman Sonya Boralv said.
Google users have long asked for a finance section, but the company took its time developing the service to make sure it offered something unique, Mayer said.
Google Finance is initially targeted at investors in North America. Google intends to add international versions in the future, Jacobs-Stanton said.
Until now, users typing a stock ticker such as “GOOG” into a Google home page were presented with a chart and price information, as well as links to pages from Yahoo, Microsoft, Motley Fool and ClearStation. Now the results will include a link to Google Finance.
Beneath the finance-focused search box at the top of the Google Finance main page are sections that provide summaries of the market, stock quotes and links to news, blogs and moderated-finance group discussions. The company’s twists include more interactive access to stories about events affecting a company’s stock price and photos of top corporate executives.
One of the more novel features of the site gives user the ability to view financial news alongside historical price charts over various time frames. As the user zooms back in time, the news results change with the date.
The site identifies financial stories within Google News, the company’s existing news search site that features articles from roughly 4,500 different sources. By contrast, Yahoo’s financial news relies on three dozen top editorial brands.
And while Yahoo was the first of the major Internet sites to incorporate blogging alongside news in its Yahoo News site, Google Finance is first to run blogs alongside financial news.
Matthew Bienfang, a retail brokerage analyst at research firm TowerGroup, said the broad-based financial information sites such as Yahoo or TheStreet.com are chipping away at online brokers such as Charles Schwab Corp., which depend on their sites to attract their core customer base.
Other Google features include the ability to set up stock portfolios, track mutual fund performance or connect to other online finance sites, including Yahoo, MSN, CNNMoney.com, Dow Jones’ MarketWatch and AOL and regulatory filings from EDGAR Online.
Google Finance started out as a part-time project by Google engineers working in Bangalore, India, Stanton said.
Financial terms of the deal between Google and Reuters were not disclosed. A Reuter’s spokesman said the company stands to benefit as customers of Google Finance click on links to Reuters sites seeking deeper information.
Once just a search engine, Google has spent much of the past two years offering more services to broaden its appeal. Google places a high priority on attracting more traffic because the company’s biggest profits come from ads displayed on its site.