Feeling Sick? Google’s Newest Feature Can Help With That

Feeling Sick? Google's Newest Feature Can Help With That
Text Size
- +

Toggle Dark Mode

Headache? Nausea? Lower-back pain? Soon, Google might be able to help you figure out what’s causing symptoms such as these.

The tech giant is currently rolling out a new feature that would make it easier for people to get an accurate list of illnesses that could be causing certain symptoms, according to USA Today.

In the coming days, symptom-related searches will bring up a list of related conditions. Self-treatment information will also appear, as well as what symptoms might be a good reason to visit a doctor, according to Google.

Roughly 1 percent of all searches on Google are symptom-related, according to a post on Google’s official blog. This amounts to millions of health-related searches everyday.

But “health content on the web can be difficult to navigate, and tends to lead people from mild symptoms to scary and unlikely conditions, which can cause unnecessary anxiety and stress,” Google officials said.

The search engine said that the updated search results would be created from a list of symptoms and conditions mentioned in web results. The data will then be cross-checked with high-quality, medically-accurate information from doctors and other medical experts.

Google said it worked with a small team of doctors, medical officials, and other experts from both the Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic to review these results.

The tech company also said that it will continually improve its symptom-related search results with user feedback. In the first few weeks of the new feature, Google will ask users to rate their results.

But although millions of people use Google to self-diagnose their ailments, the search engine notes that search results should be used for informational purposes only — and not for actual medical advice.

This update will roll out on mobile over the next few days in the U.S., Google said.

Sponsored
Social Sharing