Google Finance has a new look. While maintaining its simplicity, Google Finance has become more powerful, and is fast becoming one of the most popular interfaces on the web, for investors looking for comprehensive information on markets and specific stocks. Here are some of the impr
Better navigation
The new design includes a left-navigation bar that lets you move between the major sections of the site in one click. Links to sub-sections, like Portfolio-related news or individual portfolios, provide you with additional flexibility.
Better Customization
Sections within Google Finance can easily be skipped or moved around. The small drop-down arrow on the right side of a section’s title bar is used to move that section around the page. Click the arrow, and you can choose to move that section up, move it down, move it all the way to the top of the page, or minimize it.
Recent quotes can also be adjusted. For example, if you want to see absolute change or % change? Just click the column to toggle back and forth.
And you can customize more than layout. On the company page, you can compare related companies along any number of dimensions that you choose. Just click the Add or Remove column to select the criteria that you want.
You can also customize your charts. The chart Settings allow you to view OHLC (Open High Low Close) and Candlestick charts. Under the chart you will also notice Technicals. You can now plot your favorite technical indicators like Simple Moving Averages and more.
Additional markets and currencies
The top indices and charts are shown at the top of the page. But now, additional international indices and currencies are listed in a module on the right side of the homepage, making more global market information available on one page.
You can advertise on Google Finance using Google Adwords. This is a great opportunity for businesses in the financial/investment industries.
Conclusion
Google Finance is getting steadily better and it does remain fairly simple to use. However, there are myriads of free investment tools on the web, and the King of Free Finance Award probably goes to Yahoo Finance. Wikinvestt also has a relatively new interface and you can get wonderful charts at Stockcharts. Quote.com has even been advertising its free interface on CNBC.
So with all this free investment and financial information out there, I guess all we have to do is put it to good use to make money on stocks!