Google Stock Info Page Improved

March 22, 2006 5:32 PM

Google has quietly improved their stock info page. I'm not a huge fan of posting every new Google feature, but this is by far the best UI for stock price tracking, history, etc I've seen. Think google-maps-good. Until recently they were just linking to a Yahoo! Finance version.
posted by scarabic (24 comments total)

Yeah, truly fantastic. Might be a bit of work for google if anyone outside the US opens a stock exchange though.
posted by pompomtom at 5:42 PM on March 22, 2006

I was surprised that the interface was flash and not AJAX based.
posted by SirOmega at 5:43 PM on March 22, 2006

It is indeed excellent. Henry Blodget - yes, that Henry Blodget - has an interesting take on it here.
posted by nyterrant at 5:44 PM on March 22, 2006

Yahoo's is still better though.
posted by caddis at 5:45 PM on March 22, 2006

Give Google a few more months to put in a good screener and options stuff, and it'll be way better than Yahoo's.
posted by rxrfrx at 5:52 PM on March 22, 2006

caddis: "Yahoo's is still better though."

I've seen this same verdict a lot of places this week, and I have to say I'm not at all sure where it's coming from. Are these the same people who like KDE over Gnome because, you know, more features equals more better? I haven't been so impressed with a launch-day Google product since Gmail.
posted by Plutor at 5:56 PM on March 22, 2006

a launch-day Google product since Gmail

Both Google finance and Gmail are in beta, with no projected launch date that I'm aware of.
posted by ChasFile at 6:00 PM on March 22, 2006

BeTa indeed.
posted by mistersix at 6:03 PM on March 22, 2006

Yeah, I've got to give them this one, much as I've been planting my flag in the googlehater's camp of late. It's pretty amazing. The minor bit that blew me away was when I moused over the names of the executives at the Korean multinational where I worked, tooltippy divs popped up with photos of them, clearly all done automagically, rather than by hand, and there were blog entries from India with local perspectives on a massive project the company is undertaking, perspectives that I might never have been made aware of.

I'm impressed.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:14 PM on March 22, 2006

(...where I work (now)...)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:16 PM on March 22, 2006

A few problems, still. Where's GME? I don't own the "b" shares. Noticed another missing ticker symbol as well.

I noticed a few other little annoyances, like incorrect data/ratios (forgot which company I was researching/comparing to Yahoo's more familiar setup/checking EDGAR filings).

Slick interface though -- just wish I could trust the data, and actually build a portfolio which actually includes everything I own. Till then, useful for links and such.
posted by edverb at 6:32 PM on March 22, 2006

I like the little letters on the chart by the dates when major news items about the company hit. If you click on one that's off the list on the side, it automagically scrolls.
posted by MadamM at 6:39 PM on March 22, 2006

How do you compare two stocks in Google Finance, like you can with Yahoo Finance? Like comparing GOOG to Nasdaq.
posted by todbot at 7:43 PM on March 22, 2006

I've seen this same verdict a lot of places this week, and I have to say I'm not at all sure where it's coming from.

As far as I can tell, it's coming from people who didn't enter stock codes (AAPL, etc.) into the search box.
posted by Tlogmer at 7:52 PM on March 22, 2006

Yeah, that and portfolio are 2 key features Yahoo! has over Google. They've had those features for years, too. It's unfortunate that Yahoo! has been so slow to learn the gospel of slick UI. Google makes them look bad while offering 1/2 the functionality. My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Mail, and Yahoo! Maps have recently gotten some UI work, but they're still inferior in the slickness dept.
posted by scarabic at 7:53 PM on March 22, 2006

My favorite feature of this, by far, has to be the draggable timeline thingy. The tactile aspect of it, coupled with the news flags, makes it awesome. Is it a coincidence that, for me at least, the same "drag things around" concept put Google Maps over Mapquest?

Web 2.0 is fun.

Oh, mistersix: heh.
posted by anarcation at 8:15 PM on March 22, 2006

The timeline is a flash app, so no, not really. It's still pretty cool, though.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:19 PM on March 22, 2006

Both Google finance and Gmail are in beta, with no projected launch date that I'm aware of.

That must be on the other internets. A product that I can reach, I consider launched.

I like it, but Google's got to hit more of them out of the park to shut out Yahoo. Yahoo may have drawbacks, but they don't have any products that look half-finished -- while Google has tons of them. From where I sit, Google gets search, but Yahoo still knows the portal market a lot better.
posted by dhartung at 8:21 PM on March 22, 2006

The new version doesn't show up when using the stock: operator. e.g.: stocks:goog
posted by Sharcho at 8:56 PM on March 22, 2006

Flash doesn't bug me. Especially when used to advantage. It's all the unnecessary, annoying, showy use of Flash out there that's given the tech a bad name. Integrating it with data into a tool like this is awesome.
posted by scarabic at 9:42 PM on March 22, 2006

Google lets you type in a company name and get a quote. Yahoo gives you this crap. That alone is enough to never go near Yahoo again.
posted by cillit bang at 9:43 PM on March 22, 2006

It's an interesting start. I trade only for income, and don't need to see Beta on the detailed page, especially so when I can't see yield.

I like that Yahoo Finance will track dividend dates and amounts on the detailed display, which Google doesn't seem to capture at all. Also I'd like to be able to customise these views, something else Yahoo does.

But I guess more of concern is the fact that I can't get it to accept some symbols - DSU, EAD & CLM.

These are all monthly payers and mainstream NYSE / AMEX traded securities. Don't know why I can't add 'em.
posted by Mutant at 11:34 PM on March 22, 2006

I was surprised that the interface was flash and not AJAX based.

And how do you think that handy-dandy News-ticker gets its data? AJAX requests.

This is really, really awesome. Linking the news aggrigator with the chart so seamlessly is brilliant. For example, if you scroll to January 20th of this year and see how the stock went down. Why? Apparently investors weren't so happy with Google's resistance to Federal demands to hand over private user data.

I also love how the date automatically updates, and how you can resize the timeline view! That's kick-kick-kick-ass. I wonder how it determines which news items to drop when you go to a larger view? Perhaps it uses page-hit data to show only the most popular news items.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:38 AM on March 23, 2006

It's pretty and all, but the charts are pretty worthless. No timeline or price scale? Hrmm.

Has a lot of potential though.
posted by chundo at 7:55 AM on March 23, 2006