Yahoo and Google add bitcoin to their finance pages

When mainstream traders begin to request that bitcoin price data be added to services like Yahoo! Finance and Google Finance, it’s hard to make the case that digital currencies are purely a fringe investment. As of today, bitcoin prices are now listed right alongside the major world currencies like the Euro and the Yen. Simply by being included with more established currencies and investments, BTC is likely to gain a huge amount of credibility in the street-level investors’ eyes.

There are few details about why Yahoo! opted to launch its BTC price ticker today. Although Yahoo! has generally struggled to maintain its relevance as a search engine, the company’s Financial section is one of the most popular on the web, regularly beating CNN Money, MSN MoneyCentral and Google Finance in daily visits. The Yahoo! Finance move also appears to have forced Google’s hand, as the technology giant quietly added their BTC price tracker mere hours after Yahoo!’s debut.

Thus far, the addition hasn’t had much of an impact on bitcoin prices. One major reason for this is that there are few mainstream securities products currently available for investors. Yahoo! and Google’s move may well have been made in anticipation of the much-anticipated debut of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, which is slated to list on the NASDAQ exchange. Other bitcoin-backed exchange-traded funds (ETF) are expected to launch later this year.