Google Finance gets a boost

Dominic Jones, writing on the Seeking Alpha web site, notes that a recent change to Google searches could mean a boost in traffic to the Google Finance site and hurt rival Yahoo Finance.

Jones wrote, “While a boost in traffic to Google Finance from the main Google search pages is obvious, it’s unclear just how much more traffic we’re talking about. This is because instead of going directly to Google Finance when they click on the stock quote links, web users are given a preview without leaving the main Google search results page.

“They have to click on a second link or on the stock chart to go through to the Google Finance page for the company. The extra click could cut the amount of traffic that goes through to Google Finance pages.

“This differs from how Yahoo! handles searches for listed company names. It provides direct access to its Yahoo! Finance profile pages for companies via a hyperlinked ticker symbol next to the company’s name in its search results.

“I’m not sure I like Google’s approach because it breaks a long-established convention on the Web — that when you click on a link, you can expect go to a new webpage.

“But that doesn’t happen in this case. Instead, new content appears in the current page. Given Google’s popularity, it may be big enough to rewrite convention if it wants to. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Read more here. Jones can also be read on his IRWebReport site.