(image credit) It may not be live for a bit, but I just got off the phone with the product manager for Google Finance. Today the site is finally launching. The UK sites already have the story. A few thoughts.
First, this marks a rolling shift at Google – the company is getting into publishing, whether or not it wants to admit it. The product manager, Katie Jacobs Stanton, admitted as much when we spoke – Google Finance will have a Groups section where stocks are discussed with paid moderators – that’s editors to you and me. And that’s a shift, a shift that is worth noting.
Second, Google is integrating its Finance section as the first link in its one box implementation, ahead of Yahoo and the others who previously got the free Google juice (see it in action HERE). Now the first results are going to…well…Google. That’s obviously the right thing to do for the business, but it brings up the question – is Google in the pure unadulterated we don’t mess with your results at all we’re totally objective search business, or….is it in the Yahoo business of being a content company? Think about that on for a second. (For more, read my book on this tension.)
I’m looking forward to checking the site out. Katie – who is clearly proud of her work in an infectious way – said she’s adding blogging voices, and interactive, news driven charting, and other neat features. “We’re up to par,” with the other services, she added. (Interestingly, Katie worked at Yahoo Finance, then took time to be with her kids, then went to Google.)
Apparently this started as a 20% project in Google’s Bangalore office, after Google consumer testing showed that the product was wanted by Google users.
Well, OK then. I recall a fellow by the name of Jerry Yang and another by the name of Tim Koogle telling me that when they wanted to start a new publishing venture at Yahoo, they would watch what the users did after searching. Where the tracks were deepest – finance, sports, travel – they built a new section of the ….uh oh, here it comes…the PORTAL.
As Danny pointed out last week, this page (see #2) is getting really outta date. Not that I won’t be looking forward to using Google Finance to track my non existent shares of GOOG, which, as you might recall, have been in the dog house of late. I had dinner with a Google analyst tonight in fact. Her price target is mid 400s. Can’t a brother spare a good analyst a hundred points or so? One way or another, you’ll see the stock move right here, at Google Finance.
Hi John,
Google Finance just launched: http://www.google.com/finance
Just looking at the Google Finance site – this is cool! I’m not stock trader – but I see that information I might find useful is catogorized for me.
Just looking at the Google Finance site – this is cool! I’m not stock trader – but I see that information I might find useful is catogorized for me.
It’s about time they shipped that thing, considering how long it’s been available internally. 🙂
I was really interested in what you said about using downstream visits from Google as a gauge for product development. I looked at downstream visits on Hitwise to see where UK internet users go after Google.co.uk. Last week, 20% went to the Computers and Internet category (including search engines, image search, online communities and email), 14% went to Shopping and Classifieds sites, 11% went to Entertainment sites, 10% went to Business and Finance sites, 9% to Travel, 6% to Education, 5% to Lifestyle, 5% to News and Media, 3% to Government, 2% to Sports, and so on… Google has most of these categories covered now – with the exception of Travel.
So will Troogle be the next development – as rumour suggests? I will post more detailed stats on this on my blog shortly (weblogs.hitwise.com).
John –
There is a good post and discussion on this topic on the InternetStockBlog that I think rounds out your post. Here is the link http://internetstockblog.com/article/7930
Since Google is paying out 80% to publishers it makes sense to produce content in-house.
Jared Lansky
John, this is Game On. You are correct, this marks a significant move for GOOG, and every other vertical should be taking this as a wake-up call. Why? Well, as you say, beyond the move to content creation, it marks the first serious move into portal-esque behaviour, where the eyeballs stay inside Google’s tent. It says that they are willing to take the search revenue hit in a big category in order to try to build their own audience. For one, travel players must be terrified – this is the signal they and others no doubt have been waiting for, and hoping would never come.
Huge, John. Just huge.
– Stuart
John,
Google Finance is really just a baby step. For the average investor, it lacks research and analytics that are needed to make good investment decisions. However, I love the way it integrates all available news and blogs making it superior to finance sites that only display news from sites that have feed deals in place. See more of my review at http://www.ericfrenchman.com
Finally!
The part that I find interesting is that Google has decided to include blogs along side the financial data. The only problem I forsee is what happens when the blogs posts include rumors or attacks which could cause the stocks to move in an unfavorable direction. Who would be liable if a company decided to sue? Is it the blogger who wrote it or does Google share some responsibility for publishing it? I’m interested to see how this goes…
http://wikicompany.org is also an interesting business information site.
Michael;
Thanks for the heads up on internetstock blog
Other
The Google site is cool.
The steps that google takes is normal business, make more money.