Finding inventive ways to use search engine technology is one of the things that Google has done well.  It’s part of the reason the company has been as successful as it has.  Some of the search progressions Google has made seem obvious, like image search.  Others are stretch the envelope a little, like Book Search and Google News.

The Google Blog has a worthwhile post about a new area of interest for the search company:  health and medical information. 

Using its Co-op platform, Google has started making searches for health-related information easier for users to filter and customize.  The Co-op platform allows Google and trusted members of the health community to attach tags or labels to sites.  The labels might, for example, flag a site as having a lot of information about the treatment of an illness.  Another site might be labeled as having a lot of information on the symptoms of the same illness.  The Co-op’d results display options to refine searches by a variety of criteria, such as symptoms, treatments, and alternative medicine.

I gave it a try with a search for earache and the results were just as expected.  Clicking one of the refine options reloaded my results page with website more focused on the term I chose.  There were even options to restrict my search to sites for patients or sites for health care professionals.  I like that option because many of the websites dealing with medicine and health are much too technical for the average non-medically-trained person. 

Google plans on working closer with the health industry to further improve upon its role in helping consumers find relevant health information online.  I’m sure we’ll hear more about its advances as they become available.  If you’re in the healthcare industry you might consider adding your expertise by way of Google Co-op or by contacting Google directly at the email address provided in the post.

It will be interesting to see if other search companies take a similar approach.