Webware

This morning, Fred Wilson introduces us to one of Union Square Ventures' portfolio companies that is coming out of stealth and launching publicly. Tracked.com is a sort of re-imagining of a business information service that provides personalized information on businesses and the people associated with them.

The start-up is positioned to be a competitor to Google and Yahoo Finance, which are largely ticker-based, as well as user-driven information sites like CrunchBase, Wikipedia, and, to some extent, LinkedIn.

Tracked.com's "My Tracker" page/

(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)

Conceived by Mike Yavonditte, formerly of Quigo, Tracked.com, of course, provides extensive information on ticker-based companies, including company financials, much like Google and Yahoo Finance do, but it's not just a stock service. Its strong point is that it also tracks privately held companies, gathering any available information on them. For all of these companies, Tracked shows a wealth of information and news as well as the people associated with the company, complete with fleshed out profiles on them as well.

Tracked helps you keep an eye on the companies and people that you find important in the business world. It has a completely customizable "My Tracker" section that allows you to pick what companies and people to watch. For public companies, it has more robust functionality than Google or Yahoo Finance. It even calls out a lot of interesting data like executive compensation. For example, you can view a list of the executives with the highest compensation in 2006. For private companies, Tracked might be the most extensive, publicly available database in existence (aside from Wikipedia) and it's sure to grow even more.

Tracked's company page for Twitter.

(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)

One thing that is notably different about Tracked as compared to Wikipedia or CrunchBase is that users cannot edit current entries or add new ones. This ensures that the data on Tracked is accurate since the team can check all of the data that comes in. The downside to this is that it cannot possibly include as much information as a user-driven site.

Overall, Tracked.com is a strong, customizable alternative that will pull some users away from Google and Yahoo Finance. It is a convenient and highly addictive way to browse through information on public and private businesses as well as people. The information is so extensive and interesting that you should plan to burn a couple of hours the first time that you check the site out.

You may notice that Tracked.com is operating a little slow right now with the surge of traffic from its launch. Hopefully, as they work out the kinks, performance will improve.

Here are some additional screenshots to give you a better idea of the site's functionality, but you should really just check it out yourself. ... Read More

Google now supports the open OAuth standard for sharing data through its Google Data interface, a move that could make it easier to tap into information stored at Google property.

Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News.com)

The Google Data API (application programming interface)--GData for short--provides a conduit whereby other Web sites can slurp out data stored at Google. For personal information, such as photos at Picasa or contacts at Gmail, access to that information requires authentication. OAuth provides a standard way to perform that authentication, which means programmers at least theoretically should have an easier time writing code.

Google announced the OAuth support Thursday on its Data API blog.

Also Thursday, Google announced that Google Finance is now supported in the Google Data API. That means data could be retrieved to build, for example, a gadget with a live chart showing changing portfolio value.

And since the API permits two-way communications, it also means an outside service could update a user's information at Google Finance, for example with recent stock trades.

If you've had bold ambitions of becoming a day trader, Google Finance is now one step closer to getting you there.

Tuesday morning the New York Stock Exchange partnered with Google and CNBC to provide real-time stock quotes that will show up on Google's finance site.

This means that whatever symbols you're looking at on Google Finance will be updated without delay, and the changes can be seen both on the page and at the top of the tab it's open in on your browser. You can also get it in widget form, either in iGoogle or on your phone with Google's mobile-alerts service.

Earlier this month, Google, The Wall Street Journal, and CNBC partnered with Nasdaq to get real-time quotes from that composite index. Like NYSE, quotes from that index were delayed up to 15 minutes, rendering the service less of an asset to time-sensitive trades.

It should be noted that most serious day traders use proprietary subscription-based brokerage and charting tools that integrate with buying and selling services. Many would likely consider Google's current offerings not quite up to snuff in comparison, although the addition of real-time quotes may make it easier for consumers to view rapid fluctuations on potentially volatile stocks that the slower systems would not have illustrated.

Now you can view NYSE stocks in real time through Google Finance and other partnered sites.

(Credit: CNET Networks)