Google has launched a financial information service - Google Finance - that will compete directly with similar offerings from Microsoft, Yahoo and others, reports the New York Times. The service differentiates itself by providing interactive stock charts, allowing users to manipulate them by clicking and dragging (similar to Google Maps). For now, the site carries no ads and will focus on data for public as well as private companies. It will also link to discussions on blogs about specific companies.

Charts can be changed to show stock activity for different time periods and users can zoom in to get more detailed information, explains CNET. News stories that correspond to specific days are displayed adjacent to the graph and automatically display stories from the selected time period.

Like its competitors, Google will purchase financial information and data from third-parties, but it will be using its online database to add material like executives' photos from corporate websites. The new service was developed in India and the U.S., making use of Google News.

User may run into the service when using Google Search - the way Google has shown stock and finance information for years, in a OneBox display at the top of search results, writes Search Engine Watch, which also provides a host of other details.