It is official, Web 2.0 has not reached the stock market in a winning formula. I believe this is a huge opportunity. Look what RocketBoom has done with tech. Stocks could be 100 times bigger.

I was checking in on the big guys again today and Yahoo Finance seems furthest ahead. I love some of the features on Google Finance, but the layout still is not intuitive or I am just too used to Yahoo.

The content is available and easily linked. Yahoo, with the proper host and video could quickly dominate as could Google, but they are likely to shy away from this as opinions are necessary.

I have paid enough money to visit walled information – so trust me – anything closed is off the table and just too noisy for me or you and definately not worth the money, no matter what the blazing offers pump at you as you surf the web. Tune it out. There is no magic formula.

I am in search of something that combines cool video, good editorial linkage, is open (no yearly fee), no flashing ads and rediculous offers of wealth, intelligent conversation and easy archives.

Lindzon’s best of web today is TraderMike . It has no engaging video component yet and is limited to trading for the most part, but everything else is great. Try it out. Try his links and try the links of his blogroll. You will have more than enough good info to make money and likely enjoy the process of finding some people you can trust.

I think an editor is key and Michael proves it day in and day out. I think you can combine the editorial with a buzz tracker used in a site like Techmeme and have the best of both worlds.

The worst effort yet, considering the time and money likely devoted is BloggingStocks.com . This is the brainchild of Jason Calacanis a SENIOR VP (woo) at America Online now that his blog company was purchased by them (why he has a Wikipedia listing is a mystery).

Let’s delve into how bad it really is and what a lame effort was undertaken by someone who is being PAID specifically to build a stock community and/or market website for bloggers and investors.

1. They launch immediately as if it was Times Square – full of blinking ads and annoying offers. Thanks for taking the time to attract an audience before pounding us!

2. The offer – stock coverage on EIGHT (8) stocks – most of them DEAD – of course including the mother company Time Warner. Talk about irrelevant and insulting to the investing masses that were pummeled in the 8 stocks they have chosen to cover – less Google and Apple. The launch of their coverage of Apple and Google was likely a signal in the top for those two stocks as well.

3. Awful editing and coverage – One headline today on the front page – “Is Google the Next Enron?” What wacko editor did this story get through. Comparing a criminal organization to Google is comical and not worthy of discussion. Period.

Note to Jason – if you had just used your head and checked around, you could have built an awesome AOL Stock 2.0 site for a fraction of the cost. Thanks for leaving the playing field wide open. If you would like an introduction to Trader Mike – try emailing him. It is on his website. You can Google it if I am confusing you.

If you think I am picking on Jason, trust me I am not. His next brainchild (getting much press, but a big YAWN) is to knock off popular tech news voting site Digg ( highly trafficked, but you are not missing anything). I guess he figures that the lazy traffic still using Netscape as a homepage will like irrelevant news stories voted on by a community or the masses.

Wrong again. Traffic is not everything, especially when it comes to the news (I picture this as the “Montel Williams” of the web). I want good editors in the end.

Netscape is dead. AOL is mostly dead. AOL handed Jason a corpse to play with and he is doing his best to keep it DEAD.

I can’t imaging AOL staying in love with this guy for too long based on his production so far. Actually – it’s AOL, they probably love him :)

Note to AOL – Give me $20 million and the built in page views of a Netscape and AOL to start a finance or news blog and you will see better stuff than what Jason has showed.