Yahoo Finance Upgrades With Flash Charts, Video

As part of its first major overhaul in six years, Yahoo Finance today will add video to its site, upgrade its stock charts, and revamp message boards. Yahoo Finance also is rolling out a self-service feature that allows Web publishers to place a Yahoo box containing thumbnails of stock charts, business news headlines, and ads on their sites.

The video launch partners include CNN.com, ABCNews.com, Forbes.com, and SmartMoney--but Yahoo is in talks with more than a dozen other content providers, said Peggy White, manager of Yahoo Finance.

For the initial two-month launch period, TD Ameritrade will be the official sponsor of the site's video clips, with 15- and 30-second pre-roll ads, as well as banner and graphic ads.

White said the decision to add video stemmed from consumer demand. "What we hear from our users is that they want more video," she said, adding that Yahoo expects that the video and other upgrades will keep people on the site longer. "It's about increasing engagement with our users."

The new stock charts, like those unveiled by Google in March, incorporate Flash technology to present the data more dynamically. Also like Google, visitors can now look up stock information on Yahoo Finance by company name as well as stock ticker symbol.

Yahoo also is rolling out a tool that allows Web publishers and bloggers to add a Yahoo Finance module to their Web sites. The module can be configured to display stock quotes--either alone, with charts, or with charts and news headlines. It comes in various sizes, depending on how much content Web publishers want to include. Yahoo intends to eventually display ads on the modules, and will share revenue with the site publishers, White said. So far, the module has been in beta testing with popular blogging site HuffingtonPost.com.

The new features come at a time when Yahoo Finance, formerly the market leader in the category in the United States, has fallen behind AOL and MSN's financial sections. Yahoo Finance drew just 9.9 million U.S. visitors last month--down 12 percent from June of 2005, according to Comscore Media Metrix. MSN Money garnered 11.9 million unique visitors in June, marking an 11 percent increase from last year, while AOL Money & Finance attracted 11 million visitors, up 13 percent from last year. Google, launched in beta in March, hasn't yet made much of an impact; comScore reported just 153,000 visitors to Google Finance last month.

But Yahoo remains the category leader on a worldwide basis. Additionally, time spent on Yahoo finance by worldwide visitors in May surpassed that of the other leading finance sites, according to Global Comscore MediaMetrix. Across the globe, Yahoo Finance drew around 29 million unique visitors in May, who spent an average of 42.1 minutes on the site. MSN Money garnered around 20.1 million uniques, who remained on the site for 11.2 minutes and AOL Money & Finance drew 15.3 million visitors, who remained on the site an average of 11.9 minutes.

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