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Google increases health information available via search

Google Inside Search: “In early August, New York City saw an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, a very rare and sometimes deadly form of pneumonia. As more outbreaks came to light, Google searches for Legionnaires’ disease spiked over 1,000%. People wanted to know what this disease is, why it’s spreading, and how to prevent it. So we quickly updated our health conditions feature (first launched last February) to provide information on Legionnaires’ right up front, from a simple search. Indeed, health conditions continue to be among the most important things people ask Google about, and one of our most popular features. So today we’re announcing broader updates—over the next few weeks, you’ll notice:

  • Hundreds more health conditions (soon over 900 total, more than double the number we started with) where you’ll get quick at-a-glance info on symptoms, treatments, prevalence, and more
  • Visual design improvements and some more specific triggering so it’s quicker and easier to get the info you need (for example, you can now search for “pink eye symptoms” and you’ll get straight to the symptoms tab)
  • A ‘Download PDF’ link so you can easily print this information for a doctor’s visit—this has been a top request from doctors.”

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