Yahoo! Finance Upgrades Its Portfolio With New Products for Investors and Publishers
Launch Includes New Interactive Stock Charts as Well as Industry-First Financial Syndication Tools
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jul 17, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced the launch of several new products on Yahoo! Finance that expand the site's industry-leading suite of tools and services for investors, and allows publishers to easily host Yahoo! Finance-branded tools and data on their sites. These initiatives include new stock charts, content syndication badges for distributing news and data to online publishers, enhanced financial message boards and a news video initiative that includes several new providers of business-focused video news.
"The new stock charts on Yahoo! Finance set an industry standard for how financial data is delivered to investors on the Internet," said Peggy White, general manager, Yahoo! Finance. "Stock charts have historically been a relatively static offering on financial websites, but we've evolved our stock chart into an easy-to-use, dynamic application."
The new Yahoo! Finance charts, which launch in beta today, build on the site's robust collection of financial data and information. Key product enhancements and additions include:
-- Full-screen charts that offer an interactive user experience through the use of Flash and dhtml technologies, including one-click additions of major events such as splits and dividends, as well as one-click comparisons of competitors and indexes;
-- Historical charting capabilities dating back decades and a simple click-and-drag feature for customizing the chart's time range. The charts also feature the ability to type in the dates for charting a specific period of time;
-- Customizable technical analysis indicators for sophisticated investors, including charting indicators such as MACD and simple moving average. The charts also include educational information for novice investors and students; and,
-- One-click buttons to easily print and email customized charts.
New Community Offerings
In addition to the new stock charts, Yahoo! Finance has launched the Yahoo! Finance Badge, a web tool that allows websites of all sizes to publish stock charts, quotes, and news headlines from Yahoo! Finance, free of charge. A Yahoo! Finance Badge can be set up, customized and published within minutes. Publishers need only to complete a simple three-step sign-up process to receive the code which is simply cut-and-paste onto their website or into a blog post.
Yahoo! Finance is the first publisher to syndicate financial tools and data, without requiring paperwork or distribution fees from every publisher. The ability to distribute tools and data stems from the development of a new stock ticker platform in which Yahoo! Finance receives and processes market data directly from the nation's leading stock exchanges: NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX. Yahoo! Finance Badges have been in a beta test with a select handful of websites for several weeks, and are now available to all publishers at: http://finance.yahoo.com/badges.
Yahoo! Finance has also launched an enhanced version of its stock message boards that empowers the community to decide which content is most relevant and valuable. Users can now rate individual messages based on the quality of the post, and then use the overall community ratings to sort and filter messages based on a preferred quality level. For example, a user can decide to only read messages rated "3 out of 5 stars" or higher. Additionally, the structure of the message boards will be enhanced with discussions now appearing as "threaded conversations." This structure provides greater context by grouping messages of a single topic together rather than listing potentially unrelated posts in simple chronological order.
"Over the past decade we've established the most engaged financial community on the Internet, and we remain focused on providing the most innovative products for our users," said White. "We believe these new tools will significantly deepen our audience's engagement with Yahoo! Finance, both on and off our network."
Aggregated Business News Video Added
In addition to the new tools and services on the site, Yahoo! Finance is launching a news video initiative that will aggregate business news clips from a variety of leading providers. The new video service is launching with news from ABC.com, CNN.com, Forbes.com and SmartMoney, and will soon feature video from additional outlets.
About Yahoo! Finance
Yahoo! Finance helps consumers manage their financial lives by providing a comprehensive set of easy-to-use financial services, tools, and information. For investors, Yahoo! Finance offers late-breaking U.S. and international market news; market data for stocks, bonds, funds, and options; streaming real-time quotes and charts; brokerage research reports, investment analysis and management tools; and community resources like message boards and clubs. With Yahoo! Finance, consumers have one-stop access to the personalized financial information and services they need.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! seeks to provide online products and services essential to users' lives, and offers a full range of tools and marketing solutions for businesses to connect with Internet users around the world. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
SOURCE: Yahoo! Inc.