SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- MarketWatch, an innovator in business news, personal finance information and investment tools, today announced the launch of several features that provide an engaging way to predict stock movements with other active investors and greatly simplify how users access news and ticker symbols.
Among the features: MarketPerception, a community-driven stock forecasting tool that users can access when looking up stock quotes, and a streamlined search experience that improves the ability for users to find company news, tickers, video and podcasts throughout the site.
"MarketWatch reporters, editors and producers generate a huge amount of original market-driven content every day. Our goal is to allow our users to find that content more easily, then contribute their own voice to the conversation in a way that informs investment decisions for the entire community," said Kent Tangen, director of product and engineering at MarketWatch. "As user-generated content and branded communities gain traction, initiatives like MarketPerception that let users engage with content and form relationships with like-minded investors will be a key area for growth."
Site enhancements include the following:
* Real-time community sentiment around stocks
MarketPerception is a stock prediction tool that users can find
when they look up a quote for any domestic or foreign stock
traded in the U.S. The tool, or widget, is adjacent to the stock
price that is presented upon requesting a quote. The widget
allows users to predict whether a stock will close higher or
lower by the end of the next trading day. After submitting a
prediction, users will see the current aggregated sentiment and
community recommendation about where the stock is headed. Users
can also access more results to view the 10 stocks attracting the
largest number of predictions, the 10 with the most bullish
forecasts, and the 10 with the most bearish predictions. The
widget can also be used to predict share price movements in
exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and indexes traded on the major U.S.
exchanges.
Future enhancements to MarketPerception will allow registered
MarketWatch users to aggregate and share these predictions in a
community setting, among other tasks.
* Unified search and symbol lookup
The site now provides the ability to find either ticker symbols
or company names, news and associated videos and podcasts in one
multi-purpose search field, instead of two separate fields. With
the use of AJAX technology, MarketWatch automatically presents up
to 10 possible matches to a search as a user types each character
of a search term, accelerating the search process and enhancing
the user experience.
* Faster delivery of the latest news
Users can now see constantly updated news when searching for
quotes or checking their investment portfolios. MarketWatch's
quote page (which presents the results of a quote search) now
features Live News, an AJAX-driven capability that updates the
page with the most recent news as it is published, without the
need to refresh the page. The freshest headlines will display as
the most recent news items. The portfolio page (which lists the
holdings in a user's portfolio) now has the same feature, with
the newest headlines displaying below the tickers in a user's
portfolio.
* Streamlined access to recent headlines
The quote page now lets users instantly scroll past the eight
newest headlines to the next seven headlines simply by clicking
on "Older News." AJAX technology eliminates the need to refresh
the page.
About MarketWatch
MarketWatch, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, is a leading innovator in business news and commentary, personal finance information, and investment tools and data. Known for combining the latest new media technologies with timely market coverage, the Company generates more than 1,400 headlines, stories and market briefs a day from 100 journalists in 10 bureaus in the U.S., London and Hong Kong. In addition to operating two award-winning Web sites, MarketWatch.com and BigCharts.com, as well as the stock market simulation site, VirtualStockExchange.com, MarketWatch provides radio updates every 30 minutes on the MarketWatch.com Radio Network and offers subscription products for individual investors, including the Hulbert Financial Digest suite of products, Retirement Weekly and ETF Trader. The Company's MarketWatch Licensing Services group is a leading licensor of market news, data, investment analysis tools and other online applications to financial services firms, media companies, wireless carriers and Internet service providers.
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