Google throws away 12 years of work by investors (Portfolios in Google Finance) • Hacker News Board

Re: Google throws away 12 years of work by investors (Portfolios in Google Finance)

#51

Post by dnadler » Fri, Sep 14, 2018, 9:54 PM UTC

mmanfrin wrote: post #36

danielaxelsen wrote: post #15

Hi - I'm the creator of https://bravos.co , a replacement for Google Finance. (I didn't have anything to do with this article being posted.) I actually left my job two months ago to work on this full-time... Google Finance used to be a "home page tab" for me and it was just killing me that I couldn't find a good alternative. Bravos.co features a clean interface for tracking public companies, cryptocurrencies, and eve…

Apologies in advance if this sounds overly negative: this is not a replacement for Google Finance. This is a portfolio tracker. The first two things I checked for that made GF different and important (to me, at least) were company financials and an advanced stock search. Company financials are self explanatory (quarterly breakdowns of cash, income, etc), the stock search allowed you to pare down stocks based on marke…

Check out Koyfin.com

It's like bloomberg-light.

It doesn't have great stock filtering, but is pretty good for financial data.

Re: Google throws away 12 years of work by investors (Portfolios in Google Finance)

#52

Post by woodpanel » Fri, Sep 14, 2018, 9:55 PM UTC

danielaxelsen wrote: post #15

Hi - I'm the creator of https://bravos.co , a replacement for Google Finance. (I didn't have anything to do with this article being posted.) I actually left my job two months ago to work on this full-time... Google Finance used to be a "home page tab" for me and it was just killing me that I couldn't find a good alternative. Bravos.co features a clean interface for tracking public companies, cryptocurrencies, and eve…

Hi Daniel, neat site and I'm really happy someone is taking this on! As the OP noted, the killer feature for me to choose GoogleFinance (GF) above all other "free equities tracking websites" [1] was its portfolio.

I've just tried to see if your site addresses those pain points and it doesn't - but I think you're halfway there.

What OP's "hypothetical portfolio" means is basically the tracking of a whole set of selected equities (so in your site's case: the performance of everything within a watchlist, including a graph visualizing it plus all the common features like comparing that portfolio-graph to that of the Nasdaq, Dollar Index, BTC ...). [2]

GF's UI was horrible, but they allowed to create endless amounts of those portfolios, which was really helpful for finding one's investment strategy because you could compare "ideas". Or you could gather groups of similar equities to track their performance and decide whether they are ripe for becoming "a new idea" (like "I believe that downturn of x is at some point going to halt, maybe then it's worth investing")

When GF still had its portfolio feature, I hoped their "re-design" would allow for more mobile-friendliness (which you address) but more importantly comparing portfolio graphs with each other.

Also, as non-American I repeatedly ran into trouble finding an equivalent ticker sign for non-US equities [3]. Supporting WKN or ISIN would be an improvement over GF!

Anyways, quitting your job for this is a bold step and I wish you the best!

[1] Putting that label in quotes maybe highlights the fringeness of that niche and why Google shut it down :-(

[2] To be clear: not a graph where i have all the graphs of the items of a watchlist - but one line for all items combined

[3] My trouble was usually resolved, finding some European stock's ADR and converting the EUR amount invested to the amount of ADRs i'd have gotten in USD

Re: Google throws away 12 years of work by investors (Portfolios in Google Finance)

#53

Post by danielaxelsen » Fri, Sep 14, 2018, 9:56 PM UTC

adventured wrote: post #47

danielaxelsen wrote: post #15

Hi - I'm the creator of https://bravos.co , a replacement for Google Finance. (I didn't have anything to do with this article being posted.) I actually left my job two months ago to work on this full-time... Google Finance used to be a "home page tab" for me and it was just killing me that I couldn't find a good alternative. Bravos.co features a clean interface for tracking public companies, cryptocurrencies, and eve…

Quick feedback. On desktop, Firefox 62 / Chrome 69, Windows 10. I immediately went to put in eg MSFT in the search box in the upper left. When I hit enter it just blanks the input box. The search icon is non-reactive to clicking. The only way the search box fires properly is if I click on the auto-suggest that drops below the input box. You should definitely wire up the icon to trigger the search, and enter needs to…

Agreed. It's shockingly not supported by ReactiveSearch, which we're using right now. We'll be replacing the entire search experience as soon as possible.

Re: Google throws away 12 years of work by investors (Portfolios in Google Finance)

#54

Post by slededit » Fri, Sep 14, 2018, 9:57 PM UTC

bacon_waffle wrote: post #24

giarc wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're correct. Author added some stocks into their hypothetical portfolio and went back to check to see how it was doing. I wonder if Google sent emails to uses notifying them that the service was going to be discontinued.

I had a portfolio there, just to see what the feature was about. There was a notification on the site a while back (months ago, can't remember exactly when), but I don't think they sent an email announcement.

At times I’m annoyed they don’t update it. But given the modern idea of “updating” is to remove functionality and add white space I’m thankful.

Re: Google throws away 12 years of work by investors (Portfolios in Google Finance)

#55

Post by danielaxelsen » Fri, Sep 14, 2018, 9:59 PM UTC

woodpanel wrote: post #52

danielaxelsen wrote: post #15

Hi - I'm the creator of https://bravos.co , a replacement for Google Finance. (I didn't have anything to do with this article being posted.) I actually left my job two months ago to work on this full-time... Google Finance used to be a "home page tab" for me and it was just killing me that I couldn't find a good alternative. Bravos.co features a clean interface for tracking public companies, cryptocurrencies, and eve…

Hi Daniel, neat site and I'm really happy someone is taking this on! As the OP noted, the killer feature for me to choose GoogleFinance (GF) above all other "free equities tracking websites" [1] was its portfolio. I've just tried to see if your site addresses those pain points and it doesn't - but I think you're halfway there. What OP's "hypothetical portfolio" means is basically the tracking of a whole set of select…

Yeah, this is awesome. We absolutely need to have that.

I appreciate the points about ISIN and tickers. We'll need to be thoughtful about how we handle that, and definitely should support more than just the U.S. exchange tickers.

Re: Google throws away 12 years of work by investors (Portfolios in Google Finance)

#56

Post by malkia » Fri, Sep 14, 2018, 9:59 PM UTC

danielaxelsen wrote: post #15

Hi - I'm the creator of https://bravos.co , a replacement for Google Finance. (I didn't have anything to do with this article being posted.) I actually left my job two months ago to work on this full-time... Google Finance used to be a "home page tab" for me and it was just killing me that I couldn't find a good alternative. Bravos.co features a clean interface for tracking public companies, cryptocurrencies, and eve…

Hi Daniel - noted that sorting might be a bit flaky, possibly you guys are aware of. - e.g. tried here https://bravos.co/unicorns on the Raised, VAL columns - not always easy to repro.

Re: Google throws away 12 years of work by investors (Portfolios in Google Finance)

#57

Post by woodpanel » Fri, Sep 14, 2018, 10:00 PM UTC

mmanfrin wrote: post #36

danielaxelsen wrote: post #15

Hi - I'm the creator of https://bravos.co , a replacement for Google Finance. (I didn't have anything to do with this article being posted.) I actually left my job two months ago to work on this full-time... Google Finance used to be a "home page tab" for me and it was just killing me that I couldn't find a good alternative. Bravos.co features a clean interface for tracking public companies, cryptocurrencies, and eve…

Apologies in advance if this sounds overly negative: this is not a replacement for Google Finance. This is a portfolio tracker. The first two things I checked for that made GF different and important (to me, at least) were company financials and an advanced stock search. Company financials are self explanatory (quarterly breakdowns of cash, income, etc), the stock search allowed you to pare down stocks based on marke…

I dunno, there are tons of sites that have financial data. But yes, GF's stock picker was maybe the best search interface, because you basically were given a range-slider to each parameter. But that feature, although it sometimes yielded some pearls for me, in general felt very "beta" to me.

Re: Google throws away 12 years of work by investors (Portfolios in Google Finance)

#58

Post by AJ007 » Fri, Sep 14, 2018, 10:00 PM UTC

beaner wrote: post #19

docker_up wrote: post #4

It is mind boggling to me that both Google and Yahoo have thrown away their finance sites. It's utter garbage. And on the phone, Google Finance is even worse. They don't even use the same site or the same behavior, even though I'm pointing to the same URL. It's insane. Why would they completely disregard finance? Are they really not able to make a profitable site using ads?

What's funny to me is that so many people complain about large tech companies eating up every product category and preventing competition. But when they later kill these products, people complain all the same. Which is it? Seems like an opportunity for someone else, if it was really being relied on that much. I suspect it wasn't. The author of the article said he hadn't checked in six years. Six years! And he's compl…

It is definitely an opportunity for someone else. Just take a look at google finance's popularity using Google Trends: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=google%20finance&...

I think Google, Facebook, and especially Yahoo did significant damage to their reputations and brands through how they have disposed of products both for consumers and developers. It is really hard to take anything they put out seriously until that product has been around a long time and is clearly being supported, used, and polished.

Google and Facebook are still large, strong, and growing, but what Yahoo did to all of the companies it acquired really fucked both their investors and customers. One wonders if Google and Facebook will wander down that path when their growth stalls out.

Re: Google throws away 12 years of work by investors (Portfolios in Google Finance)

#59

Post by lalos » Fri, Sep 14, 2018, 10:03 PM UTC

As long as Google reports 90% of the revenue from a single stream (Ads), anything else is a pet project that can be canceled or left to rot since there is no strong incentive to keep working on it. I try to back up whatever work I do on any Google service. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me -> Google graveyard for more info: https://www.lifewire.com/google-graveyard-products-1616198

Re: Google throws away 12 years of work by investors (Portfolios in Google Finance)

#60

Post by danielaxelsen » Fri, Sep 14, 2018, 10:07 PM UTC

malkia wrote: post #56

danielaxelsen wrote: post #15

Hi - I'm the creator of https://bravos.co , a replacement for Google Finance. (I didn't have anything to do with this article being posted.) I actually left my job two months ago to work on this full-time... Google Finance used to be a "home page tab" for me and it was just killing me that I couldn't find a good alternative. Bravos.co features a clean interface for tracking public companies, cryptocurrencies, and eve…

Hi Daniel - noted that sorting might be a bit flaky, possibly you guys are aware of. - e.g. tried here https://bravos.co/unicorns on the Raised, VAL columns - not always easy to repro.

Thank you! I think I just fixed it, but we have work to do on components like that.