When it comes to money, Brits probably don’t need as much help as Americans; all other issues aside, it’s our economy, more than theirs, that’s heading into a recession.  Still, we think Google’s made a good move by introducing Google Finance UK.

Overcoming the inertia that keeps people going to other financial sites confronts Chris Jolley, group manager at Microsoft’s Financial Products Group, every day. He believe MSN Money deserves a look.

Recently I had a chance to post at WPW some reputation management help for Rebecca Kelly from SEOmoz.org. Here is the thread from WPW:

Reputation Management Advice

Yahoo wants to beef up its leading Finance site with videos, and will add CNBC content to the mix.

AOL will go head to head with Yahoo Finance as well as competition from Google and Microsoft, with all of these big Internet players looking for valuable financial news readers.

Google Finance recently gained the ability to share real-time stock quotes from China, and it’s rather proud of this fact.  Also, in the event you’re wondering why we don’t get real-time quotes from within the U.S., Google says it’s all the SEC’s fault.

Google’s allowed many of its products and services to grow old and moldy, and one of the most high-profile examples of this is Google Finance.  In theory, the site wouldn’t just appeal to some small niche group, but nonetheless, Google Finance isn’t really going anywhere.

Google Finance Canada is coming!  Actually, an announcement may have stated that it was already here, but the Official Google Blog has been updated to say, “Oops.  We hit the button too soon.  Watch for news about Google Finance in Canada next Tuesday.”

The after hours price for shares of GOOG as seen on both Yahoo Finance and Google Finance plummeted to $12 for a few brief minutes at around 6:14 pm EDT.

The Google Finance group plans to take an active role in answering questions on its blog, but only for a couple of days.

The Federal Trade Commission would like to scuttle the proposed takeover of Wild Oats Markets by Whole Foods, and will point to anonymous Yahoo Finance forum posts by Whole Foods’ CEO as a reason to do so.

Financial expert, best-selling author and columnist Suze Orman spoke at eBay Live today, outlining a hit-list of personal finance tips. Orman’s advice centers on credit scores, retirement accounts, investments, real estate, life insurance, and wills.

Suze Orman At eBay Live!

Apple announced third-party apps for the iPhone. Sounds a LOT like Adobe’s new AIR. Delivers HTML and JavaScript apps down to the phone via Safari. What’s interesting is what Steve Jobs left out.

No Java. So, can’t run Kyte.tv’s application. Can’t run the Google Maps application I’m using on my Nokia. Can’t run something cool coming soon from eBay that I’m testing out. Can’t run Radar.net. Etc. Etc.

Some new features arrived in Google’s Finance site, with the big addition being content from events like earnings announcements and analyst calls.

In Seeking Alpha’s ongoing Q&A with the Google Finance product manager, my question was:

Google Finance is one of the rather rare Google apps which makes use of Flash. I’m curious, at Google what considerations go into deciding whether to go for Flash or DHTML/ Ajax/ browser vector languages like SVG?

One of the most precious commodities in the world is real estate. Everyone is looking for their own little piece of the world to settle and call their own. Home ownership is a goal shared by so many that it seems appropriate that companies like Google and Yahoo would go to such lengths to cater to real estate searchers.

Though Yahoo Finance has earned its place as the top online financial site, Google’s version has several positives going for it that may be overlooked.

What? I had more than one story about integrations and such, and that was easily the worst title I could think of. Who would have thought there was a way to include “stuff” in a title four times, and have it vaguely make sense?

Playing second fiddle to Yahoo isn’t a position that Google finds itself accustomed to these days, as the company clearly has Yahoo trumped in the realm of search. Finance, however, is a different story for Google as it has struggled to compete with Yahoo in this particular niche.

It’s been nearly nine months since Google launched its finance site upon the Internet world, and it still has yet to make so much as a dent into Yahoo’s lead in this particular market.

Seeking to increase its already sizeable lead as the Internet’s leading financial portal, Yahoo has launched a new addition to its Finance site, which is geared at helping users make more informed decisions concerning their personal finances.

Recent upgrades and enhanced design features implemented within Google Finance have analysts wondering if Google can close the financial services gap and catch up to Yahoo as a comprehensive market resource.