Finance Roll

If you haven't already heard, Google rolled out their own Finance site today to rival that of Yahoo's and Marketwatch.

After spending a few minutes using the site, I have to say that I am very unimpressed. The design of the site is far inferior to that of Yahoo's or Marketwatch, with a clunky layout that makes finding what you are looking for rather difficult. They display a few financial stats, but not any wheres near what the others offer their users. The portfolio tools are very rudimentary and outdated feeling, and their charts are nothing special. The whole site just feels rushed in my opinion.

One feature that I do like is the inclusion of real-time quotes, something that the others don't offer. Also, they display links to blog posts on the respective companies. Unfortunately, it doesn't display links tovery many blogs, none of my posts on specific companies are indexed nor are those of many of my peers. The majority of the links are to the Seeking Alpha Network, to which I am a contributor, but these are merely repubishings of other's works. If Google can figure out a way to include a more extensive list of blog submissions, it would be a nice touch, but unfortunately I don't forsee them devoting the necessary time to accomplish this.

I will give Google the benefit of the doubt here, as the site is only in beta, but Google Finance is nothing to write home about. Reminiscient of many of their most recent offerings, such as Google SiteCreator and Google Video, the site appears to be lacking the innovation and quality that used to set Google apart, a disturbing trend if you are a Google shareholder. Unless they are able to make some extreme improvements, I don't see many Yahoo Finance users or Marketwatch users converting. Not only is Google late to the party, but they left the gifts at home as well, nothing fashionable about their entrance here.