Google To Double The Number Of Health Conditions In Search Results

Google announced they are more than doubling their health conditions database, so that when you search for health or medical topics in Google, you are more likely to find factual medical data on that condition.

Google launched medical content in search back in February with about 400 conditions. Over the next few weeks, you should see more than 900 conditions listed. Google also is adding downloadable PDFs and updating the overall design on both Web and mobile.

Here are the three large changes happening with Google’s medical search results:

• Hundreds more health conditions (soon more than 900 total, more than double the number Google started with) with 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

I am sure doctors are going to appreciate their patients walking in with PDFs printed out of Doctor Google.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.