Financial portals have been around a long time, and get a ton of traffic. Despite that, it seems like they’re the forgotten children of their parent companies, getting less attention and TLC than they should. You might have thought Google’s 2006 entry into the space would have threatened Yahoo! Finance into upping their game, but judging by the traffic graph (Google Finance leveled off after a small initial bang), Yahoo! probably figured there was no reason to be threatened. A year or so later, the “unthinkable” happened: AOL Money relaunched with a kick-butt product, and due to its high quality user experience it took over the top spot.
All of this is good for us PF nerds: the big finance portals can duke it out by offering us new features and better user experiences, right? I’ve taken a look at the current versions of each portal and provided my notes below. Note that I don’t really think one is a category-killer at this point: each portal has its pros and cons, and you might prefer one over another due to personal taste and what you use it for.
Google Finance launched to great fanfare in 2006, with many people expecting it would take the number one spot from Yahoo! in short order. Except–they didn’t. In fact, Google Finance hasn’t seen much of anything updated since it first launched, besides some minor tweaks here and there. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing: Google Finance is, well, Google-y finance, and that means a simple, fast, clean user experience.
My user experience notes on Google Finance:
- Simple, clean, “Google-y” interface
- Shows a lot of coverage from blogs, less from traditional media source
- Easy to use comparison feature on graphs (particular stock vs. S&P, Nasdaq, etc.)
- Very few ads and distractions around the content
- My verdict: clean and simple. That could be good or bad, depending on what you want/need.
- Check out AAPL on Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:AAPL
Now onto the original…
Yahoo! Finance is like an old, worn out sofa cushion sporting a comfortable groove where my backside has rested day in and day out for eight long years. It’s an old friend. I can find anything I need in two or three clicks, and it rarely breaks. True, the design is looking a little dated. In fact, the design looked dated three years ago. But content is king, and Yahoo! delivers on the content.
My user experience notes on Yahoo! Finance:
- Shows a lot coverage from traditional media sources (Reuters, MarketWatch, etc.), less from blogs
- Easy circa 2003 usability and design (not necessarily a bad thing)
- Pages are fairly busy: too many ads and distractions?
- The message boards here are highly trafficked (though, I don’t think they’re a great source of information)
- My verdict: The tried and true choice, it will do what you need, if you don’t mind the busy interface.
- Check out AAPL on Yahoo! Finance: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=AAPL
Finally, onto the underdog…
Last but not least we have AOL Finance. OK, admit it: You haven’t had much respect for the AOL brand since you were on dial-up. That’s OK. You have your reasons. But you should also give credit where credit is due: the new AOL Finance portal is pretty darn awesome. It’s clean, it’s pretty, it’s feature rich, it will even help you lose weight and quit smoking (OK, maybe not those things).
My user experience notes on AOL Finance:
- Finally, a design in 2009 that looks like a 2009 design!
- Does a good job of balancing features (a lot of them) with usability (you can find what you need)
- Good browsing engine for blog posts, analyst reports, news stories, etc.
- You can make an easy-to-build customized ‘ROI table’ that shows investment returns for any security and period you select
- My verdict: Good design and feature-rich. If you’re not yet a habitual user of the competitors, you might want to try this one first.
- Check out AAPL on AOL Finance: http://finance.aol.com/quotes/apple-inc/aapl/nas
And that wraps up my comparison. I could’ve included more portals (like CNN Money or MSN Money), but I figured these three are the ones to beat, long term. Please let me know what you think in the comments. Do you have a favorite financial portal? If so, which one, and why?
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{ 1 comment }
It depends on what you are looking for or looking at. I preffer yahoo finance, but that could be because I’ve been using it for awhile and I’m use to it a little. But I think you will get different response from people depending on their preference.
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