Feeling
light-headed? Can’t stop your eyelid from twitching? Suffering from heart
palpitations?
For these
and other ailments, Ask.com on Tuesday launched Health Smart Answers, which
aims to aggregate health information online and become the authoritative source
for medical problems large and small.
“We just
have never fully addressed health until now,” said Ask.com product
manager Scott Grieder.
The new
search feature pops up as the top result when a user searches for terms such as
“cancer” or “heart attack.” It consists of a thumbnail image, a definition, and
links to pages that cover symptoms, prevention, and risk factors.
Sponsored search results and general search results appear below these “Smart
Answers.”
Mr.
Grieder said his company has similar Smart Answers for movie, local map, and
business searches dating back as far as 2000. Ask.com has been working for
several months to launch the Health Smart Answers after tracking the growth of
health queries on the site since 2004.
Mr. Grieder said health searches have
grown by one percent each year and now comprise 6 percent of all searches on the
site, making health one of the top five search categories.
With
Tuesday’s new feature, health searches on Ask.com now link to content from
Healthline, Gray’s Anatomy, and Revolution Health.
JupiterResearch
analyst Monique Levy said Ask.com’s new approach to health searches makes sense
since 58 percent of online users start health searches from a general search
engine with no particular destination in mind. Only 16 percent of users go directly to specialty health sites such as WebMD.com.
Although
Ask.com still lags far behind Google and Yahoo, Ms. Levy said incorporating a
more refined health search function better positions Ask.com to tap into the growth in Internet advertising, which has attracted pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. “Anything
that helps people get closer to what they’re looking for is an important and
positive development for any search engine,” Ms. Levy said.
She cited
Google’s similar health search functions and Microsoft’s recent acquisition of
vertical search engine Medstory as other examples.