Monday, June 2, 2008

Google - Real time streaming stock quotes for all

In a move that no doubt woke up more than a few CEO's this morning, Google took yet another unprecedented step early this morning.

Google Finance is now delivering free real-time streaming stock quotes to all, for free.

Typically, in the past, if you wanted real-time Internet quotes, you needed to have a brokerage account that offered them, or you paid for the service. Stock quotes were readily available on hundreds of websites but they were delayed by 15 minutes.

This is a huge move by Google, and the reaction by the financial community websites will be very interesting to watch as the day unfolds.

Update: The announcement has now been posted to the Official Google Blog and can be found here.

Update 2: The real-time stock quotes are being provided by the NASDAQ stock exchange only (so far) and are also available on CNBC and The Wall St Journal Online .

Correction: Yahoo Finance receives their quotes from BATS, and is not part of this pilot program.