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Early Google Finance Reviews Mixed

Business 2.0 says...

Google Finance flops?
http://biz.yahoo.com/hbusn/060321/032106_business2_browser0231.html

Years ago, Google's statement of corporate philosophy told users that the search engine didn't "do horoscopes, financial advice, or chat." Well, one out of three ain't bad. Google Finance's launch, right on the heels of the Google Talk chat service, leaves only horoscopes for Google to conquer. And much of the blogosphere is panning the new financial service. Venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky calls it "all whiz, no bang." Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li says users of sites like Yahoo Finance and MSN Money are unlikely to switch. And Business 2.0 senior writer Om Malik, in perhaps the most cutting critique, compares using Google Finance to "watching Al Pacino in a stinker like Two for the Money." Maybe Google will have better luck with Google Horoscopes.

GigaOM says:

Google Finance Disappoints

http://gigaom.com/2006/03/21/google-finance-needs-some-muscle/

The much awaited launch of Google Finance service finally happened - in beta of course. And in one word, it is simply disappointing. Its like watching Al Pacino in a stinker like Two for the money. Tony Montana was so long ago!

But back to Google Finance. After playing around with it for about 15 minutes, it is obvious that it will be a long time, and I mean long time in Internet years that is, before Google Finance really catches up to Yahoo Finance, which in fact is the gold standard. (Just by the virtue of lack of competitors, as it might be.)

My inner cynic says that the reason Google launched this service this quickly is because it wants to capture those high CPM/CPC dollars from stock and mortgage brokerages. Yahoo Finance is like an ATM for guys in Sunnyvale, and Google till recently had nothing to capture the “exuberant enthusiasm in the stock and real estate markets.”

But TechCrunch likes it...

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/21/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.