Google announces Free Real-Times Quotes
Google [[GOOG]] deals a serious blow to Yahoo, online brokers, and financial data providers by announcing free real-time last-sale prices across all Google properties including Google Finance, Personalized Google, Mobile, and Google.com. The Google service will be similar to Yahoo who offers free ECN quotes but charges $9.95 per month for streaming real-time quotes through its MarketTracker service.
It’s not a done deal yet as Google is waiting for approval from the SEC. Also, ZDNet points out that Google is not mentioned anywhere in the documents they referred to in their article. Therefore, the changes to be made could be global in nature rather than simply creating an exemption for one specific company. This fact was verified by a Reuters article that revealed the plan will allow websites to publish real-time prices in return for payments of $100,000 a month (original source – WSJ). Clearly, this deal is only for companies with deep pockets.
One caveat is that Reuters and Google mentions ‘NYSE’ real-time quotes. Does this include AMEX and NASDAQ quotes? If not, it will be nearly useless to the average investor. Google is a member of a group called NetCoalition, which has complained about a lack of real-time stock data offered through services owned by the NYSE Group and Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.
I will keep my current paid service active until all this shakes out.
