Google have announced a new Finance for Android app that is available now in the Android Market.  Finance for Android links up with the online Google Finance website, and allows users to view real-time streaming quotes in their portfolio, access fast stock look-ups with search auto-suggestion, and call up “recent quotes” to check figures on-the-go.

Each stock shows detailed quotes, charts and news, and any change you make to your portfolio automatically syncs up with the Google Finance website.  The software – which is a free download – is the work of Arun Mathew, Lead engineer, and Nick Fey, User experience designer, who coded it in their Google 20-percent time, the term given to space outside of core projects that employees at the search giant are encouraged to fill with their own projects.  

It’s not all perfect, however.  Currently the Finance for Android app is only available to users in the US, and there’s limited market support: NASDAQ and Dow Jones shares are covered, for instance, but not the London Stock Exchange.  Hopefully the Google engineers will spend a little more of their 20-percent time tweaking an updated version that addresses those issues.