Nearly nine months after a ballyhooed launch with the usual Google great expectations from the madding crowd, the much improved Google Finance makes its debut. The first version never gained much traction. For all of Google’s traffic, the best Google Finance could muster was far behind Yahoo and the rest—579,000 unique visitors in October for Google compared with 13.7 million for Yahoo, acording to Nielsen NetRatings. Vishesh Kumar took a good look at Google Finance’s shortcomings earlier this month and picks up on the changes today. He says it’s improved but Google isn’t putting enough resources into what should be considered a priority. The move comes soon after Google scratched Google Answers. Google blog.
—There does seem to be a slight disconnect: the Google blog post says the launch was six months ago but it was March 21.
—One standout feature: a copy-and-paste portfolio import that allows close-to-instant utility. I was able to import my Yahoo portfolio in a minute. But the Yahoo portfolio is still easier to scan and the recent news was fresher, more varied.
Related: Google Finance Struggles for Users