Google Launches Google Finance

Last month there were many rumors about Google Finance on it’s way. These rumors have become true and Google Finance is now live.

The pages contain a brief overview of the stock’s history, company’s facts, financials and summeries, all of which is harvested around the web.

One major negative (that I can see) is the fact that none of the data is unique and is automatically harvested around the web. News (and blog) headlines appear above the fold and to the right of the chart, and can make this service a target for manipulators. This notion gets even a stronger back with this week’s exposure of people and bloggers who use Digg to create a buzz and inflate stock prices almost instantly. It will be very interesting to see if Google will filter news items of such and how the ones aren’t filtered going to affect prices in short runs.

Something I liked very much about this service, and it goes along with the abot issue is that headlines are appearing on the chart and therefore one see the different influences of certain headlines on trends in the market (and yet again, how bogus headlines can offer short term gains).

And there are some who speculate that the next Google service will be Google Health which will take the company one more step closer into being a portal…