9W Search Launches Financial Search Engine, Preps Screener

Austin, Texas-based financial search engine startup 9W Search has launched the first production release of its web-based financial information search platform, rolling out free and premium registration, and is completing development of a new screener tool to help users quickly filter through the platform's data.

The free version of 9W's platform includes company overview pages, leadership and board of director information, real-time stock quotes, financial data as well as pre-built financial queries, while the premium version -- priced at $19 per month -- also includes footnotes from company filings and the ability to share results via email, social media or by exporting data to Microsoft Excel or in PDF format.

The beta version of the platform provided five years' worth of historical financial data and one years' worth of financial ratios, and the production release now includes five years' of ratios as well, with both annual and quarterly figures available. Furthermore, while the combined view of financials and ratios page currently allows users to view the previous years' data, the vendor is now assessing demand from users to see if they want more historical data available from that view as well, says 9W chief executive Susan Strausberg.

The company overview pages -- which include a business description, the number of shares outstanding, market capitalization and most recent earnings -- now also include a live Twitter feed of company-related tweets. "These aren't tweets from the company itself, but tweets about the company because the interest is more on the sentiment around the company, which can add more value," Strausberg says.

The vendor is also now completing a screener tool that will enable users to quickly identify companies that meet their criteria -- such as companies in a particular industry sector or companies whose revenue is within a certain range -- and expects to roll out this feature later this quarter. This will shortly be followed by the release of a portfolio function for saving user screens, Strausberg says.

With the initial development work to create the core features and a stable back-end for the platform complete, 9W is now focusing on ways to grow its user base, and is in discussions with unnamed potential partners to integrate its platform with their existing portals, she adds.