Google Inc. is changing how it displays search results for common health conditions with some help from Mayo Clinic.
The tech giant announced Tuesday it will put information about a Googled medical term – such as pink eye or tonsillitis — in a prominent box near search results. The box will highlight details about each ailment, such how common it is and how it’s treated.
Mountain View, Cailf.-based Google compiled the information from respected medical sources and Mayo Clinic physicians signed-off on the final descriptions.
About one in 20 Google searches are for health information, the company said in ablog post. Google included 400 common medical search terms in its new display system.
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In its own blog post, Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo noted that the descriptions don’t constitute medical advice.
“I think these should be viewed as the first stop for those needing health information, and as people need more information, they can quickly connect to a medical website like MayoClinic.org,” said Dr. Phil Hagen, medical director for healthy living at Mayo Clinic Global Business Solutions, in a statement.
Investors in WebMD Health Corp., which runs popular health-information website webMD.com, apparently viewed Google’s move as a threat. WebMD’s stock was down about 5 percent to $38.41 in afternoon trading.
Date: February 10, 2015