Google Finance Blog - News and Views from the Google Finance team

Plot Feeds is back

Friday, August 22, 2008 at 8:13 AM



And ... we're back. You can once again view blogs and plot feeds on Google Finance charts. Access to blogs provides a greater range of information than conventional news alone; plotting a particular feed lets you view its information in the context of a stock's performance.

Click the 'Blogs' tab from any company's summary page, and you'll see the blogosphere's coverage of that company plotted along the chart. Or, if you want to plot specific blogs on the chart -- blogs you know, blogs you search for, or blogs you write -- click the 'Feeds' tab. Search for a blog or type its URL, and the blog posts will be plotted on the company's chart, making it easy for you to discover the blogs that provide high-quality analysis and breaking news.

Try this feature out and let us know what you think. Stay tuned for more as we continue to enhance Google Finance.

Plot Feeds unavailable for the moment

Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 3:16 PM



As you may have noticed, the Google Finance site was inaccessible to some users for several hours earlier this morning. We’ve now restored the site, but it will take us a bit longer to restore the blogs and feeds feature that we launched yesterday.

We’re working feverishly on a fix and will let you know as soon as these features are back up.

If you're experiencing any technical difficulties, we encourage you to visit the Google Finance Help Center.

Plotting more than news on the charts

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 7:29 AM



Plotting news stories on the company charts has always been one of my favorite features of Google Finance. Today, I'm happy to announce that we're pushing it even further!

First,you'll notice that we moved the Blogs section to a tab next to the News area. When you select the blog tab, relevant blog posts are listed and charted just like the news items, making it easier to see the blogosphere's coverage of your favorite stocks.
We've also added a tab called Feeds. There are a few ways you can use this tab:
  • Search for relevant feeds by typing keywords in the query box. Relevant results (like blogs or news feeds) are listed so you can choose which one to plot onto the chart, just like news stories and blog posts.
  • Use addresses from blogs you know, blogs you've written, or blogs you just found that you think are relevant to a stock. For example, one of my favorite URLs is http://AAPL.bloggingstocks.com/rss.xml. Enter it in the query box and you can see the news about Apple from bloggingstocks.com as flags on a company chart (hint: it works for most other symbols too!).




  • Use data from Google Spreadsheets. If you keep notes in a Google Spreadsheet about your investing decisions, you can publish that spreadsheet to the web and plot the entries along any Google Finance chart.



And best of all, if you find a blog or create a useful spreadsheet that you'd like to share with others, you can click "Link to chart" to send a link to your friends.

For more advanced tricks for the Feeds tab, you can visit our Help Center to learn more.

We're hoping this feature will encourage more, and more meaningful content creation by analysts, bloggers, and users alike. By giving users more content to compare with the stock performance over time we hope to help investors make financial decisions that are as informed as possible.

As always, let us know if you have any comments or suggestions.