Google Finance – Lots of Flash & Ajax

The rumor is that Google internally tested Google Finance through two full versions before releasing it today, and the extra attention shows. This is a great looking product overall. And they’ve taken things at least a step further than Yahoo Finance in its current form.

The included information is similar to Yahoo Finance for public companies (stuff that can be scoured from public SEC reports and company related news), but there are some key new features:

  • Use of Flash for charts to change features like timeline on the fly; drag and drop to move back in time
  • Use of Ajax on the home page to switch between market views (Nasdaq, NYSE, etc.)
  • Inclusion of recent blog entries relating to the company (see link in first bullet above)
  • Private company information

The flash charts are loading very slowly right now, i assume this will improve. The last bullet above is really interesting – they’ve created some original content for private companies and have indexed more from the web. Google Finance information will also be displayed at the top of normal seach results for public companies, in what they call the One Box area.

Om says Google Finance is dissapointing and is little more than a “me too” on Yahoo. But in this case I disagree and am happy to give a nod to Google – Other than the very slow Flash charts, I like it, and I think this will push Yahoo to move its own finance property forward.

More on Google Finance at John Battelle, SEW and Memeorandum.