Google Finance Launching or Testing

[lorenbaker]

Was digging though my referrals this morning and found some hefty clues pointing to the launch of Google Finance.

1) google.com/finance

2) referrals from this URL for searches of "GOOG"

3) Search Strings :

http://google.com/finance?q=goog&btng=search+finance

0.frontend.sfe.scrooge.dc.borg.google.com:31853

4) IP's : Google.com, IP addresses 213.208.226.42, 65.57.245.11 & 80.169.137.162, Sonic.net

My educated guess is that the Google Finance portal is listing either blog or news stories related to stock ticker symbols, as the referrals were pointing to my most recent stories on Google Japan and Google Page Creator.

More here : http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=2991

[Wail]

This is a great find - I think it's the most interesting and search space changing comment to hit the thread this week. Maybe this month.

If Google introduces a personal finance vertical search then they may do to the moneynet searches of the internet what they're currently doing to web analytics.

Just as importantly, if Google does one vertical then who's to say that they won't do another? We've already seen some signs of Google Travel with some flights triggering links to selected partners.

Speaking of partners; there's the American coverage of the Olympics and the "in association with" links (which are neither natural nor sponsored). We're definitely seeing more shades of grey from Google in their "we're not a portal" and "clearly identify paid search content" stance.