Finally a beta launch from Google that isn’t plagued by major scaling woes, at least as of this evening (might not want to hold your breath): Google Finance

Google Finance is broken into sections featuring: Discussions (Google Groups), blog posts (Google Blog Search), News (Google news), related companies, company financials, management (just hover over the name and watch pictures appear), company facts, company summary, a generously-sized stock graph with key events alphabetically tagged.

I’ve been using Yahoo Finance for ages to check stocks but Google Finance gives more information on a single page and isn’t whored up with flashing buttons and ads like Yahoo.

I’m still in a holding pattern on my GOOG stock and not ready to buy more but this launch is a step in the right direction again, if only it showed some sort of monetization (where is it?).

John Battelle thinks: “First, this marks a rolling shift at Google - the company is getting into publishing, whether or not it wants to admit it.”

I don’t see having a finance section as “getting into publishing” rather it’s like filling a gap in their growing portal structure. They are definitely starting to look more like Yahoo, though, sans the gaudy ads. Wow, Google isn’t even running Adsense on their Finance pages yet. Not even a toolbar pitch that I could see.

Where is the monetization?