Google has added real-time stock prices to its line-up of free offerings, along with a ride service for locating taxis and shuttles.

Adding to its existing 20-minute-delayed stock quotes, Google last week started making real-time stock quotes available both through its Web site.

"As a Google user, it always bugged me to have to go to other Web sites to get stock quotes," Katie Stanton, a Google business product manager, wrote in the company's corporate blog. "Now we get a direct feed of market data, so all you have to do is type in a ticker symbol like INDU or SUNW and the search results will include the latest exchange and real-time ECN quote, intraday chart, volume and market cap."

ECNs, or Electronic Communication Networks, are private financial trading systems that together process about a quarter of the Nasdaq's volume, according to Yahoo. ECN quotes may differ slightly from official stock market quotes. Yahoo offers free ECN quotes but charges US$9.95 for streamed actual quotes.

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