Given that we’re supposedly coming out of the global recession, Google’s UK launch of its Finance app is extremely well-timed. As those black clouds lift from the world’s stock markets, the planet’s money-men will be in dire need of a decent mobile app such as this.

If you’ve previously used an iPhone then Google Finance will need little in the way of introduction; Apple’s device comes with a very similar application pre-loaded. However, while it does an admirable job of enabling you to track stock market activity, it’s placed well and truly in the shade by Google’s superior effort.

Browsing for quotes is a painless affair; simply type in the trading name of the firm you’re looking for and Google Finance will locate it. It even has a real-time auto-fill system which saves time when searching for specific quotes. Once you’ve found the company you seek it is added to your personal portfolio so you can track the rise and fall of stock over a prolonged period. This removes the need to constantly re-search for companies, too.

Because the app is continually updating, you get the most up-to-date figures possible – even when you’re out and about. This will be especially handy for those who play the stock market but find they’re away from their computer for large portions of the day; using Google Finance, you need never miss out on those vital changes.

As well as giving you lots of confusing numbers and graphs, Google Finance also offers a news service which shows the most important stories of the day. These can range from reports on recent events to rumours regarding potential deals. These items are even tagged to relevant companies, so for example if you have Sega Sammy in your portfolio, you’ll see various news items relating to the general state of the Japanese stock market.

Add in the opportunity to sync this mobile app with Google’s Finance website and you’ve got a pretty solid piece of software – and all coded in the 20% “me time” that Google famously affords its software designers.

There is room for improvement – the interface is quite plain and the way in which the news articles are presented could be better (at present the app merely displays the webpage, which is often the wrong size for your phone’s display) – but on the whole this is a typically accomplished effort from Google.

Naturally, unless you have an interest in the stock markets then Google Finance is going to seem pretty dull, but for those of you with an inkling to invest some hard-earned cash and take a risk, this is the ideal digital companion.