In an effort to compete with Yahoo Finance, Google has released its own version of a stock research tool called Google Finance.

Google Finance is currently in beta and provides news, stock charts, financial statements, ratios (P/E, P/S, beta, EPS), company summaries, and real-time stock quotes. Stock quotes from Yahoo Finance are delayed by about 15-20 minutes. Google Finance says "Real Time ECN," beneath its stock ticker, but I wonder if the quotes are really "real-time." I'll find out on Tuesday (markets are closed on Monday for Easter).

This is a smart move on Google's part. If they can make Google Finance better than Yahoo Finance, perhaps people will switch over. However, Yahoo has a more useful layout (in my opinion), plus it's got message boards, and stock screeners…two big features that Google Finance is lacking.

Yahoo also allows users to create stock alerts, set up portfolios to track returns, and subscribe (via RSS) to press releases (and market news) for chosen companies. Google doesn't offer any of this. So, I think it'll be a while before Google is able to effectively compete with Yahoo Finance.

Currently, Yahoo Finance has a ton of useful features, and a massive community of users. And, that's not likely to disappear overnight.