Google's Finance Site Fumble

While the media have been rife with praise for Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) for a rare trumping of Google(GOOG Quote) -- Google folded its Answers service on Wednesday as Yahoo!'s rendition flourishes -- another area where Yahoo! has a commanding lead gets less attention.

It's been eight months since Google launched its Google Finance Web site to much fanfare. With the search juggernaut's enormous resources and winning streak, many thought it would only be a matter of time before Google's service would usurp the position of Yahoo! Finance -- the most visited financial site on the Web.

But Google Finance has failed to make a dent so far. Yahoo! Finance had 13.7 million users in October, about 24 times more than Google's 579,000, according to the research firm Nielsen Net Ratings. And users also tend to spend 28 minutes on Yahoo! Finance -- nearly twice as much time as users of Google Finance. ...