Some Yahoo!
Yahoo! Finance is adding user ratings to its discussion board community. In other words, users can tag certain postings as particularly useful. It's definitely a step in the direction that many Internet companies are taking -- harnessing the collective intellect of a large online community has proved pretty effective these days. Indeed, such ratings should help separate the wheat from the chaff.
Speaking of chaff, though, some would argue that Yahoo! Finance's free discussion board community is kind of wild -- as in, Wild West. Yep, it's often rife with misspellings, rantings, ravings, questionable logic, and sometimes downright nasty and threatening sentiments. However, if the community can help weed out such unhelpful content, it automatically becomes a more effective tool for all. (Think Wikipedia, which relies on its own community to help monitor the quality of its entries.) Of course, it's only going to be as effective as the people rating the content, but it still represents an improvement over a free-for-all. This strategy kills chronology; the thoughts with merit should (theoretically, anyway) float to the top.
My Foolish colleague Tim Beyers recently theorized that Google Finance represents another puzzle piece in Google's drive toward Web 2.0. However, Yahoo!'s news today hints that it's on that track, too. User ratings are definitely a Web 2.0 element -- although I admit, this seems but a small step if Yahoo! intends to give its Finance product a little more pizzazz.
Google Finance may have some nice and innovative features, but Yahoo! Finance is still the leader, in my book anyway. I've been using Yahoo! Finance for many years, and it has been a valuable tool in my research during many phases of my career, long before I worked here at the Fool. It has a formidable stack of reliable content providers and tons of useful features, such as the Key Stats page, which is very helpful to investors. Plus, Yahoo! Finance has sheer time on its side; I doubt loyal users would defect easily to Google's new service, even with its nifty elements.
Indeed, Comscore portrays Yahoo! Finance as a leader in the area, with 31 million unique visitors in February. Microsoft's
Although I think Google's a great company with many great ideas (and tops in search), I'm not always convinced that it can swoop in and hurt its rivals in any area it chooses just because it's Google. When it comes to taking on the mature and venerable Yahoo! Finance -- which, one would imagine, will surely add more enhancements in the coming weeks and months -- I think Google may be a bit out of its league.
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Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned.
