Google is a swiftly evolving beast—a company-wide restructuring has us guessing what’s next, a logo change rouses the design commentariats from their kerning-fussy slumber. But the most recent tweak to Google Search, a panel aggregating health condition info, can have some consequences for hypochondriacs and the companies that rely on them.
The company announced in a blog post that it will start displaying symptoms and detailed treatments with guided illustrations in this fashion:
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Image: Google
And this matters because Google says 1 in 20 searches are about something health-related—which means that about 5 percent of its whopping hold over traffic goes into the pockets of web health companies like WebMD, which rely on grabbing at user information that would otherwise be sealed under patient confidentiality. Though, once you do search for a disease, Google will have that info anyway. That’s the price of instant information.
The update will bring the number of excerpted diseases to about 900, up from 400 earlier this year, and will display aggregated information from sources like the Mayo Clinic to bring the possibly afflicted up to speed. Unlike looking up symptoms on WebMD, which can be a harrowing experience in itself, Google says the info on the health panel is “curated” and “validated” by a team of doctors they consulted with.
Sure: it’s nifty, the perks of getting a nicely formatted brochure sheet about the flu is nice. But nothing can replace a proper visit to your doctor when you think you’ve come down with something serious.
