Google has attempted to "enter" market after market, those "markets" being other peoples' businesses. If one examines their track record, one can see that Google has produced two things:
1. An ever-growing roster of failures in its attempts to enter others' businesses.
2. An ever-growing list of enemies.
Now Google does it again. But in the process, it also will make enemies out of all the financial services firms who also provide data as part of their services. The immediate impact of this folly will not hit Google's bottom line, as the immediate impact is a swelling supply of ill-will towards Google.
How will that "supply" of ill-will towards Google ever be manifest in the free market economy?
Certainly when firms angry at Google are offered (i) viable alternatives to Google (not easy in the short term given their share in search, but easy to do by swapping in alternatives to Adsense/Google Context Ads), (ii) opportunities to help those who wish to beat Google in search (this is much easier for large industry players to implement in the short run, and many are clearly formulating their dump-Google strategies right now), and (iii) setting up their corporate PC and IT strategies so as to cut Google out -- off the corporate desktop for search, off the IT agenda for MS Office alternatives, off the corporate agenda for cell phones and PDAs.
Financial services firms (who are also very real players in "financial information"), are very large employers and have very large share of the most valuable web traffic. In aggregate, they are a formidable enemy.
Financial information and news publishing firms, have another angle: stop providing Google with access to their news in any shape or form, AND, never give them access to their proprietary data such as FX and bond prices.
Google has an arrogance problem. They seem to be willing to forgive themselves for their failures in simple extensions to their core advertising business: they failed in radio. They failed in print advertising. Google TV ads seems a failure too. So they fail in markets which they should understand. Will they succeed in markets they don't understand? Oh, so hiring one Bloomberg insider is the trick eh?
Let's all kick back and watch this Google blooper play out. Should be entertaining.
Maybe next they'll become a bank and an electric power company and a video conferencing company (oops, they failed at that already).
Yes, let them keep flaring shareholder money. It's fun to watch!