Google Finance, in beta for the last year, has been quickly evolving with with introduction of realtime quotes from the NYSE late last month and international launches of Google Finance in Canada the U.K. and China.
The integration of Google News and portfolio management tools means
that Google Finance is moving to become a bonafide consumer finance destination
site, a sector long dominated by Yahoo! Finance. It may also compete with consumer trading sites and services.
Although Google is not going into the broker/dealer business, it will
bring the financial services industry into Google Finance as
advertisers and strategic partners, Beet.TV has learned in this
interview with R. J. Pittman, who heads consumer search for Google. He
told me and Kelsey, in this interview we conducted last week, that Google Finance will be “a great lever for the
financial industry.”
R.J. indicates that Google Finance is poised for broad global expansion. Up and running in North America, the U.K. and China, the company is evaluating opportunities in the 100 countries where it operates.
— Andy Plesser, Executive Producer
Update: Yahoo Finance saw 18.5 million unique viewers in May, more than any other financial news and research site, comScore announced in a press release today. AOL Money & Finance and MSN Money came in second and third with 15.2 million and 13.7 million unique viewers, respectively. It will be interesting to see how Google Finance fares against these heavyweights in the future.
