While it’s almost never a good idea to search for medical symptoms online, Google is at least making the process a little easier on mobile by giving you direct answers to the symptoms you search for.
The new direct answers will work the same as when you search for medical conditions. Type in say, “swollen joints” and Google will theoretically point you toward arthritis. Basically, the goal is to make searching for symptoms a little easier and to at least attempt to filter the professional advice overseen by Harvard Medical School and Mayo Clinic to the top of the results. The feature will be rolling out on mobile over the next few days. There are certainly better ways to get medical information on the internet, but we all now Google’s the first place most people go.
I’m Feeling Yucky 🙁 Searching for symptoms on Google [Google Blog]
Comments
One response to “Google Will Start Showing Direct Answers When You Search For Medical Symptoms”
Hypochondriacs will be in 7th heaven.
And while we’re here, grammar nazi alert:
“…but we all now Google’s the first place …”
Tut, tut, LH. You should ‘now’ better.