Related Articles
jasonahoule
When you notice something out of the ordinary with your body, what’s the first thing you do? Do you go to a doctor? Or do you jump on the internet to look up your symptoms on Google?
If it’s the latter — and let’s be honest, it probably is — it seems as though the search giant wants to make sure the advice you get is a little more accurate than what you can come up with on your own. The company is testing the option to video chat with a doctor when you search for symptoms on Google, as spotted by Redditor jasonahoule while looking up knee pain and confirmed to Gizmodo.
“When you’re searching for basic health information — from conditions like insomnia or food poisoning — our goal is provide you with the most helpful information available,” Google said. “We’re trying this new feature to see if it’s useful to people.”
The trial, which is only being offered to a small number of users, is currently free to users as part of Google’s Helpouts live video chat advice service. If the service gets a full rollout later, users may be charged for using it using Google Wallet — although its efficacy, given that the doctor cannot physically perform standard physical tests — remains to be seen.
