Google starts streaming business news

Search engine Google has started streaming financial stories and headlines on its investor site, stepping up competition with business-news services, writes Connie Guglielmo of Bloomberg.

Guglielmo writes, “News items on the Google Finance home page and Google’s news page are now updated automatically, ‘as they develop minute by minute, throughout the day,’ without users having to refresh the page, Google said today in a blog posting.

“The addition of streaming news builds on Google’s move last year to add real-time stock prices, challenging market leader Yahoo! Inc. and other investor sites. Google Finance attracted 1.5 million users in the U.S. in October and is ranked 17th among business and finance news sites, according to ComScore Inc. in Reston, Virginia.

“‘Streaming keeps information fresh,’ Google said in the posting. ‘Especially in today’s volatile financial environment, current information can be the difference between seizing an opportunity and missing it.’

“News items will be streamed between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. New York time, which includes the 90 minutes before and after U.S. stock-market trading hours, Mountain View, California-based Google said.”

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