Washington: Internet giant Google has quietly launched a test version of a financial news portal, aiming to draw users away from rivals like Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN.
Although there was no official announcement of the launch, analysts said the site was up and running late on Monday with financial market information and news.
Danny Sullivan at Searchenginewatch.com said the move was expected as Google moves to compete more directly with other web companies.
"For years, those seeking specialty financial information via Google have been sent to competitors such as Yahoo and MSN. Now Google's providing financial information directly to its own users," Sullivan said.
"Google Finance will initially cover only companies in North America, but Google said it plans to expand 'very quickly' to other countries and regions of the world in the future, though there's no exact rollout schedule," he added.
Analysts said the new effort marked a shift in strategy for Google, which up to now has been mainly a pure search engine that avoids organising "content" in the portal format used by Yahoo and MSN.
Charlene Li at Forrester Research said in a blog: "So overall, Google has done a very, very nice job pulling together a financial portal. Oops, did I just say 'portal'? Sure looks like Google is pursuing that strategy now, doesn't it! And rightly so."
Search engine blogger John Battelle writes that "this marks a rolling shift at Google - the company is getting into publishing, whether or not it wants to admit it."
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