Updates on charts!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 7:51 PM

Posted by Andrey Khorlin, Google Finance 20% Engineer

We've gotten a lot of great feedback and suggestions on how to improve our charts. In response, today we're unveiling an updated UI as well as some new tools. The new chart UI makes it easier to compare stocks, indices and even mutual funds. In the "compare" tab, we provide some suggestions on what you might like to compare a stock with, such as industry competitors or general market indices. Or feel free to add your own stock, index or mutual fund.



In addition, we have a bunch of new features to help analyze public companies. First, you can now "link to chart" with all of your settings preserved. For example, take a look at this 2-year comparison between Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) and S&P 500. Copy and paste the link from the "Link To Chart" tab, then send a link to your friend or include it in your blog.



Another feature we've recently added is support for logarithmic scale, which is extremely useful when viewing charts that have large changes in price. Just compare the 10-year chart for i2 Technologies Inc (ITWO). Without logarithmic scale, the current behavior of the stock is hard to see.

Linear chart:



Logarithmic chart:



In the comments section, please let us know what you think of these additions as well as what other chart features you would like to see.

The fine lines ...

Thursday, September 13, 2007 at 9:47 PM

Posted by Katie Jacobs Stanton, Group Product Manager

One of our favorite testers for Google Finance features is also a member of a fantastic local singing group, The Richter Scales, in San Francisco. They put the following video and song together to help us all take the edge out of the subprime meltdown. Enjoy!

User experience research

Friday, September 7, 2007 at 5:12 PM

Posted by Marianne Berkovich, User Experience Researcher, Google Finance

I've recently joined the Google Finance team as a user experience researcher. My role is to observe, talk with, and otherwise hang out with people using Google Finance. Simply put, we want to learn how you use the site and how we can improve it. Your comments on this blog and through the Help Center are great sources of feedback; our research activities are another way you can share your thoughts with us. All of these activities help us to get more focused insight on a particular topic -- for example, how you use portfolios, or what type of community features you'd like to see. Our research activities might include:

- surveys
- remote or in-person usability studies
- field studies (at your home or office)

Please sign up if you're interested in participating in upcoming research projects.

Historical LSE data

Wednesday, September 5, 2007 at 10:07 AM

Posted by Matthew Simmons, Market Data Gnome

We now have historical daily prices for LSE stocks (like Vodafone or British Airways) back to 1996. You'll note that splits have been imported, but dividends have not. Dividends will follow along shortly.

If you notice any problems, please let us know.