There have been many complaints that people have in regards to Yahoo! in general, for its difficulty in navigating, the proliferation of shoddy websites in its directory listing, and its relatively antiquated search technology.

However, there is that one proverbial diamond in that proverbial rough. That diamond is Yahoo! Finance. They boast to be rated #1 by SmartMoney magazine (which, for those you who know me, is one of my faves), but I don't see why there aren't any other major publications out there spreading the word. I believe the reason for that is because Yahoo! doesn't invest heavily in advertising in financial print media; and that the media is beholden to its advertisers, featuring the ones that advertise the most, rather than the ones that are truly the best.

Another reason why many people discount the power of Yahoo! Finance is that it's free, and you know that old economist's motto, "there is no such thing as a free lunch." I guess that the whenever something is offered free of charge to us, the consumers, we immediately put a big red flag on it, telling us that we will end up with the short side of the deal, eventually. But look at it this way; Yahoo! still gets it's advertising money every time we click, and as long as we get our information, it really shouldn't matter to us how much money Yahoo!'s making.

Quite possibly, the reason for this apathy is that Yahoo! Finance was one of the first financial websites that gave full functionality, with company backgrounds, message boards, SEC filings, and Insider trading. There are few other site out there that have this amalgamation of tools, and I can safely say that none of them have the kind of customer base and loyalty that Yahoo! does. That kind of base allows Yahoo! to keep expanding on service, and keep maintaining their website; all thanks to the salivation of web advertisers, who dream of this kind of targeted audience.

The simplicity of Yahoo! is evident upon hitting Yahoo! Finance's webpage; there's a place for you to enter in your ticker symbols right at the top, and right in the center (not hidden to the upper-left, like some other companies). With Dow, Nasdaq, AMEX, and Treasuries right above, and the ever-present Yahoo! directory structure below, you can easily find what you need in short order. One you enter in your ticker symbol(s), it gives you your quote, and also gives you links to their other services; fast and easy, no navigation needed. This kind of simplicity is what other websites are seriously lacking; instead of hunting for information, I'm hunting for my next killing.

Another great side of Yahoo! Finance is that it loads fast, and it's reliable. Without all those fancy graphics that litter all of the other websites, load-time is lightning quick, even on a slow internet connection. The fact that the finance site isn't even heavily integrated into the rest of Yahoo! adds to that speed. If you look at MSN's investor.com, you'll have to wait for those silly graphics to load, as well as the hyperlinks on the top. Altavista Live is even worse, having to navigate through world news before you get to your quotes.

In fact, the only things that were lacking in Yahoo! Finance's toolbox were Option Quotes, and Real Time Quotes, the former of which was recently added to their service. Your guess is as good as mine when Yahoo! will add that service to their offerings. In the meantime, my vote for real-time (free) quote service goes to money.net's screamer, with altavista's "live" coming in a close second, and MSN's investor.com coming in third.

The only free financial website out there that even comes close to Yahoo! Finance's dominance is MSN's MoneyCentral, which is littered with advertisements, and has way too many opinionated articles. With Yahoo! Finance, you don't get the hard sale that you do with other websites; the customer base is too massive to make any wholesale changes (on the negative side) to the service, so rest assured, at least for the near future, Yahoo! Finance will remain the king of financial websites.



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