Recent upgrades and enhanced design features implemented within Google Finance have analysts wondering if Google can close the financial services gap and catch up to Yahoo as a comprehensive market resource.
Last month, Google unrolled a totally revamped homepage for its finance section. The company also added a myriad of new features to the service such as market & sector summaries, enhanced portfolios, comparison charts, category pages and much more.
Now, the company is looking at ways to provide real-time stock quotes for free to Google Finance users.
Taken from the Official Google Blog, the company outlines the process thus far in trying to bring this feature to its user base:
[W]e’ve worked with the SEC, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and our D.C. trade association, NetCoalition, to find a way to bring stock data to Google users in a way that benefits users and is practical for all parties. We have encouraged the SEC to ensure that this data can be made available to our users at fair and reasonable rates, and applaud their recent efforts to review this issue.
Today, the NYSE has moved the issue a great step forward with a proposal to the SEC which if approved, would allow you to see real-time, last-sale prices across all Google properties including Google Finance, Personalized Google, Mobile, and of course, Google.com. It won’t matter if you’re on Wall Street or Main Street — you’ll have free, easy and fast access to real-time prices from NYSE on Google.
Google still trails rival Yahoo by a sizable margin in the financial services department, but the company seems determined to keep plugging away at Google Finance, tweaking it until the product garners broader appeal.
You can set yourself up with a Google finance portfolio here.
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Joe is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
