Recently Google launched Google Finance. Already the comparisons, pros and cons etc. of Google Finance vs. competitors like Yahoo and others have begun being debated. A good summary can be found on Search Engine Watch.

But Google lauches it applications with a fundamentally different approach to Yahoo and the rest. Google adds as much value as possible as quickly as possible and worries about revenue streams later whereas Yahoo (and other big portals) traditionally have needed a viable business plan with revenue streams (usually includiong paid content) before proceeding with large scale projects.

As such, Google Finance already has a powerful API and it will be a short time before we see loads of mash-ups with Google finance. Already an exciting prospect has been launched - Social Picks, described as:

“SocialPicks enables stock investors at all levels to exchange market research, recommend stock picks, and get new investment ideas. You can become an influential analyst and impact peers’ decisions with your powerful analysis & performance!”

I personally prefer the Google presentation to the other offerings - their graphing in particular is incredible.