We know you all spend time each day monitoring your current and researching new investments. Today Yahoo! Finance rolled out a series of new features to help you in this process, and also to help you discover new opportunities and news. Here is an overview of your new site features:

On Equity “Ticker” pages (example: YHOO, AAPL), you can now find comparisons between the ticker you are looking at and other related tickers in the same industry. Comparisons are shown between the daily price change %, as well as market cap.

For “Indices” pages (example: DJI), you now quickly get the biggest gainers and loosers for the index listed right on the ticker home page.

For “Mutual Fund” quote pages (example: VFINX), you now get a quick snapshot of the Top Holdings right on the top level page — as many of you requested.

For all of our analysts out there…We have broken out Press Releases for you on each ticker page. Now you get quick access to the most recent official company announcements. We know that with all the news we offer it can often be difficult to find the original press release. This should now be easier for you.

Last but not least, Aaron Task and his tech|ticker videos are now viewable from your iPad. Check out the latest video from Aaron: Foreclosures Up in 1H But So Is Housing Affordability: “Let’s Not Throw In the Towel”

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Today the Yahoo! Finance team rolled out new Yahoo! Finance sites in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Singapore. Already in 20+ countries around the world, this is the first wave of a global Yahoo! Finance platform that is rolling out across the globe. This global platform now enables new countries to be onboarded at a rapid pace, and all countries receive new features at the same time. If you are one of our users in these new countries, you will be excited to know that these sites are now upgraded with functionality you have seen on this U.S. website. This includes a new News reading experience, currency tools, localized content, a new Investing section, interactive charts, and more. Watch the sites closely over the coming months as additional content is added, as well as improvements to our industry leading Quote web pages.

Thank you for making Yahoo! Finance the #1 place you research and watch your investments - globally!

David Putnam
Sr. Director, Yahoo! Finance

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Yahoo! Finance is known for the breadth and depth of company information we provide, but sometimes it can be tricky to find exactly what you need. Problem solved. Now you can conduct powerful and comprehensive searches using the new and improved Yahoo! Finance Search.

In addition to finding relevant content across Yahoo! Finance, we now include results from the web and organize it all in a way that’s easy to use. The new Finance Search can uncover details on companies and executives, find information on private companies and even help determine what companies are associated with topics.

To get to Finance Search, click “Finance Search” in the blue bar on every Yahoo! Finance page:

From here, enter your search. Or, browse a list of the day’s popular finance searches.

Section 1: Quote Information

A quote appears when your search exactly matches a ticker or a quote name. You’ll see pricing information and a chart.

Section 2: News

You’ll see the latest news stories from Yahoo! and across the web.

Section 3: Company & Quote Results

The list of Companies (public and private), ETFs, Mutual Funds and Indices (from US and worldwide exchanges) is generated from matches between your search and content on Yahoo! Finance, including: company/quote name, ticker, business summary, key execs, analysts, and insiders.

As an example, you can enter the name of a person (“Carol Bartz” ) or a topic (“biodynamic farm”) to find related companies. In the example of Carol Bartz, she is a key exec and insider at the companies listed. In the example of “biodynamic farm,” biodynamic farm is mentioned in the business summary on the company profile pages.

Section 4: Yahoo! Finance and Web Search Results

Using Web Search results, you’ll find content available on Yahoo! Finance and the Web. In the default “All Results” view, the first 3 results are from Yahoo! Finance, and the next results are from the Web. You can also view only Yahoo! Finance results or only Web Results.

Let us know what you think!

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In our industry leading quest to deliver the information and tools necessary for you to make financial investment decisions, last week we added news from The New York Times and video from CNNMoney.com to Yahoo! Finance. So, where can you find stories from these world renowned sources on your Yahoo! Finance site?

The New York Times articles are available often on our Front Page under Top Stories, as well as ticker quote pages, when they relate to that stock, mutual fund, ETF, currency, etc. If you would prefer to find The New York Times content all in one place, it is always available on the Yahoo! Finance – The New York Times news home page.

You can find links to CNNMoney.com video content on ticker pages when the video is relevant for that ticker. In addition CNNMoney.com video content is always be available for viewing on the Yahoo! Finance – CNN Money.com news home page. In both cases, headlines are marked with a [video] label to make it easy for you to identify.

We continue to add new partners every month, check back here on our blog to receive these new updates!

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UPDATE:

Earlier this week we made a number of updates to the Yahoo! Finance message boards. Among them was a move to the latest identity management system being used across much of Yahoo!. While there were some strong user benefits of this feature, it created a lot of confusion and we didn’t communicate with you as much as we should have. Based on your input, we have rolled back to the previous way of managing and displaying your identity on the message boards.

Over 20 million people come to Yahoo! Finance each month and many of you visit one or more of the nearly 1 million Finance message boards. Some use the message boards as a source for company research or to share investing tips and strategies. For others it’s just a source of entertainment.

Regardless of your reason for visiting, it’s essential that your virtual identity is protected and that you can trust that the authors of the messages you read are who you think they are. Many of you have been using the Finance message boards for years, have developed reputations based on your insights and have even built friendships. Your identity is your personal brand on the message boards and it must be protected.

Unfortunately, communities this large and focused often become the target of abuse. That’s certainly the case for the Finance message boards. Efforts earlier this year helped to reduce the incidents of reported abuse by 45% but we still have a long way to go. We’re also constantly working to improve other issues like message boards that are missing when there is a new ticker or a ticker change.

Issues related to abuse and privacy are what prompted the new features this week. As soon as we saw your reaction, people across the organization immediately began evaluating a number of solutions and ultimately decided to remove the new feature.

You have our commitment that any future changes like this will be clearly communicated well ahead of time, that your voices will be heard and that your input will help guide the final implementation. We ALWAYS welcome your feedback and suggestions.

The Yahoo! Finance Message Boards were updated yesterday to support improvements in the way that user profiles can be used. In addition to new features, these updates are designed to help protect your identity, to give you more control and flexibility, and to prevent spam and abuse. For more information on Profiles please visit the Profiles blog.

We want to make it very clear that your privacy and user experience are extremely important. You can still post and reply to messages without publicly exposing your personal information. However, the process has changed a bit. This post provides a step-by-step tutorial. Most of these steps will only need to be completed once.

In order to post or reply to a message on the Yahoo! Finance Message Boards, you need to be signed in to a Yahoo! account.

You can choose to post your message using your primary name or a private alias. If you prefer to use a private alias, users on the message boards will only see your alias name and it will not link to your profile. This tutorial will show you how to create and use a private alias on the message boards. Of course, if you prefer, you can also simply change your full name and display name in your profile settings. Additional information on aliases.

1) Visit your Profile page: http://profiles.yahoo.com

From your profile page, select ‘View Account Info’ from the ‘Account Info’ tab.

On the Account Info page, scroll down to the ‘Account Settings’ section and select ‘Manage your Yahoo! aliases’.

On the ‘Manage your Yahoo! identities’ page, click ‘Add an alias’ then enter your desired alias name and click ‘Save’ to the right.

You can control how people find you and how your aliases are displayed by then visiting the settings page: http://profiles.yahoo.com/settings/peoplesearch

Uncheck any aliases that you want to remain private then click save.

Now, when you go post or reply to a message on the Yahoo! Finance Message Boards, you’ll see your identities listed in the ‘Identity’ dropdown box.

If you want to keep your identity private, be sure to use the alias that was unchecked in the previous settings page. Messages that are posted using a private alias will not display your name or profile information and will not link to your profile. Look forward to seeing your posts!

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