There are many reasons to love Google’s new(ish) Knowledge Graph for health. But we think it’s got a long way to go before it becomes a truly great product that Menlo Park’s finest can be proud.
If you haven’t seen it – and it’s currently only available in the US and related territories – Knowledge Graph serves up basic relevant content on the right side of your results page.
The technical gubbins that enable Google to do this are beyond me, but one thing’s for sure, it’s an awesome feat of algorithmical engineering. A cursory look at what it serves up for a relatively common search such as “breast cancer” shows you a great overview, including facts, figures, images and treatment options.
So why are we unimpressed with Google’s Knowledge Graph for health?
Beside some glitches with the user experience, we believe this wonder widget detracts from Google’s core strength – users’ ability to choose from results. Knowledge Graph instead spoonfeeds you the modern equivalent of an “I’m Feeling Lucky” search.
Worse still, while the algorithm draws on reliable data and clinically-assured content, it comes from a very narrow selection of sources. This produces some odd results, such as the frankly weird images it pulls from Mayo Clinic (sorry Mayo – in almost every other respect you’ve got a top-notch site).
Google fails to understand users
But by far our biggest problem with Google’s health Knowledge Graph is its basic facts-only focus. We’d argue Google’s fails to address people’s health search behaviour. It takes a Wikipedia-style approach to information: great for the cut-n-pasting student who wants some info to crib for an essay, but do frightened Googlers really need to know that breast cancer affects 3 million Americans a year? How is that helpful?
A search for breast cancer brings up suggestions for which chemotherapy regime we should be on – something we’d rather get our oncologist’s views on, thank you very much, Mister Brin. The key here is thinking about users (also known as people using the internet) instead of “patients” and this is one of the core principles of the NHS Choices digital transformation initiative.
There’s a tendency to think of people Googling health information as “cyberchondriacs” and worried well, but our user research, content creation experience and feedback at NHS Choices suggests otherwise. Health information seekers are in pain and are worried and are often confused. The user might have found a lump, or had an inconclusive test result from the GP, or bad news from and oncologist – or they might just be searching to find out more about the condition a soap character has. Often they’re simply concerned about someone they love.
How to make it better
Google’s Knowledge Graph for Health does little to address these needs.
At the base of the widget, Google has added the sage, lawyerly suggestion to consult a doctor for medical advice. We can do better than that. Doctors’ time is precious, appointments aren’t always instantly available.
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