Google has launched a test version of a financial news portal, aiming to draw users away from rivals like Yahoo! and Microsoft Corp's MSN. Google financial service is divided into channels that provide summaries of the market, stock quotes and links to news, blogs and group discussions.

"Our goal with Google Finance," the company said in an official statement, "is to enhance the user experience when searching for financial information and make this information useful and digestible for all types of users. Google Finance also strives to offer users a new way to understand stock performance."
Some of the highlights in Google Finance Beta include:

* Interactive Charts – Google Finance takes financial charts one step further by mapping market data with corresponding news stories in one interactive chart, so users can track news to stock performance. In addition, users can click and drag on the charts to see different time periods, and zoom in/out for more detailed information.

* Search – Unlike many financial sites, Google Finance lets users search for public and private companies, as well as mutual funds, using both company names and ticker symbols. Users can also search for companies by the names of management team members.

* News – Google Finance integrates the Google News service, which gathers stories from more than 4,500 English news sources worldwide. Google News is clustered in groups by news topic, rather than listed by date, so users do not have to scroll through multiple headlines on the same news story.

* Blogs – Google Finance incorporates blog postings for related company information from Google Blog Search.

* Discussion Groups – Google Finance helps users connect with each other by offering high quality discussion forums. To help ensure a high-quality experience, we have a team of folks dedicated to keeping the discussion groups free of spam
and irrelevant posts.

* Portfolios – Google Finance offers a fast and easy way to create and maintain your portfolio of stocks and mutual funds.