Welcome to NEWS.COM Investor

It's not often that watercooler talk on April 15 involves much other than the fear and loathing inspired by the IRS.

But the talk of the town on tax day this year was the mind-boggling stock gains made by the likes of Excite, Infoseek, and Yahoo--and, of course, the inevitable anecdotes of how a friend of a friend of a friend had parlayed an investment of $10,000 into a cool million.

Just as amazing was the fact that an average investor can now track ticker developments throughout the day, something only brokers could do until a short time ago. The vehicle for this grass-roots change is, of course, the Internet. Thanks to the Web, getting the news and the means to trade has never been easier, cheaper, and more common.

It is against this backdrop that we are introducing NEWS.COM Investor.

For us, it is a natural evolution of our groundbreaking news service. When we launched NEWS.COM in September 1996, our goal was to provide you with the most up-to-date technology news coverage. You readers have told us with your continued--and overwhelming--support that we have exceeded your expectations. Indeed, many of you have told us that NEWS.COM has become a must-read.

NEWS.COM Investor is a natural for us because more than half of you--those who work in information technology--have told us in a survey that you are also active investors. Some of you also have said that you are forced to go to a financial site to act on the breaking technology news you first read at NEWS.COM.

We believe that we have excelled at covering industry from a technology news perspective. At the risk of sounding boastful, we are proud to say we have won three prestigious awards in the first three months of this year alone.

We expect to do the same with NEWS.COM Investor on the financial news and information front.

We are very proud to partner with Bloomberg--the premier source of financial news and data for Wall Street traders--to bring you this new service. Over the course of the next few months, we will be providing you rich, timely financial information that has been available mostly to professional traders for a handsome fee. We will provide this Bloomberg data to you free of charge.

Here are just a few of NEWS.COM Investor's features: stock quotes, charts, current financial information such as analyst recommendations and IPO updates, key market indices, and the Bloomberg/CNET technology industries listing. We also realize that your portfolio includes more than just technology stocks. So we have made sure that NEWS.COM Investor--thanks to Bloomberg--provides you the same breadth of information on nontechnology securities and their industries. For example, in addition to obtaining stock information under the symbol "COKE," you can compare its data with competitors in the "Beverages--Non-alcoholic" category.

But this is only the beginning. In Phases II and III of NEWS.COM Investor--coming this summer--we will bring you enhanced features such as a personal portfolio, an earnings calendar, historical data, SEC filings, options pricing, mutual fund tracking, currency rates, and much more.

By combining NEWS.COM's top-notch tech industry coverage with Bloomberg's comprehensive financial information, we believe that we have created the Internet's definitive resource for investors. But, as always, you will be the ultimate judge of that. We look forward to your feedback.

In the meantime, sit back and make a killing on Wall Street--online, of course.

Jai Singh
Editor, CNET NEWS.COM

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