Google News
Just a quick Google update:  Google News has just added a couple features to their interface.  The first is that Google has added a Blog Search to Google News homepage.  This was announced in the last day or two. 

The second change is that Google just added Archive Search to the Google News homepage as well.  Adding Google Blog Search to the Google News page is a sign that Google is realizing that many blogs out there are starting to become worthy sources for news. 

Google Archive Search is an initiative where users can “search and explore historical archives. Users can search for events, people, ideas and see how they have been described over time. In addition to searching for the most relevant articles for their query, users can get an historical overview of the results by browsing an automatically created timeline [source].”

Here is a sample of some of the archive dates and publications of what Google Archive Search is offering.  I’m sure that more will be added soon.

The nice thing about the Archive Search is that a lot of the archived articles are affordable with a lot of the articles being free.  The highest price I have seen for one article so far was $4.95.  I even found one [article from Time that is from 1955] and for free. 

Google Finance has also added new features.  A stock, fund, or index comparison was added so zig-zag lines indicate the percentage differences between them.  Also when looking at Google Finance charts, by customizing your settings, points on a chart may indicate where that certain stock has released a dividend or set a stock split.  News can also be flagged at certain points of the chart. 

Another new Google Finance feature includes importing portfolios from other sources into your personalized Google Finance page.  “Simply go to your portfolio on another site, copy the area of the portfolio, including the column headers, and then paste it in the “Import” section of the Google portfolio page [source].”

These new listed features for Google News and Google Finance are very beneficial for investors and historians.  Not only can you read archived articles of companies with a long history such as Ford Motor Company, but now you can also monitor their performance closely with the new Google Finance features.  Looks like the Google ‘Features, not products’ initiative is progressing.