Google has gotten into the financial side of the web recently. Actually they have been in it for a while but it is still in Beta. Not to worry, it is still functional. Beta to Google is like 95% done to most companies. The only thing Beta means is that they are still coming up with new ideas and new ways to present the information easily to the average visitor.

One thing for sure is that Google will bring the strength of their search engine to Google Finance. I read an interview in SFO Magazine the other day and it mentioned that they will be trying to bring together stock market charts and news that possibly caused the move. This is done sometimes on other websites, but usually weeks later by someone writing an article on it. You can bet that Google wants it to be real time or as close to it as possible. This will make it easier for the novice to see that news and which type of news can make the markets move. This is especially visible with Currencies. There are between 4 to 8 news items a month that cause the Forex Markets to move suddenly.

Another cool thing that Google Finance is going to do is have much more information on OTC or Penny Stocks on the site. I can't find it on there now but that’s one of the reasons they are still in Beta. Things come and go and come back better or easier. If it is true that will in itself be ground breaking. I don’t know of any of the major financial sites that even remotely have data and charting on Penny Stocks.

I like that the Euro and the U.S. Dollar information is right on the top right hand section. If you click on USD-Euro it will take you to a chart with News Items labeled A through Z on the chart itself. You can see that the news items moved the foreign currency market. I've always liked having that sort of information correlated, since it tends to be cyclical in currencies as I mentioned earlier. The chart is flexible also if you look at the bottom of the chart you can slide the viewer wider to show a longer time frame. Just another little neat item from Google.

All in all I look forward to Google Finance being completed and fully functional with all of the bells and whistles that Google has stated will be. I am also looking forward to any and all new ideas that they will implement. Google is always coming up with new ways to do things and new ideas that link 2 or more things that the normal company hasn’t thought of. As it is they have on the front page down near the bottom the four-tabbed box called Trends. This is interesting because the first tab is Popular, and it is telling you which companies are being searched on today. That isn’t on any other website.

Check it out at