Microsoft Discovers Cyberchondria
from the internet-is-going-to-kill-you dept
Some researchers at Microsoft have been studying cyberchondria, the phenomenon of people searching the web for medical info, then concluding they've got some horrible disease or affliction. They conclude that "Web search engines have the potential to escalate medical concerns." That seems like something we already knew, but the researchers suggest one potential way to deal with the issue would be to teach search engines to recognize when they're being used as a medical diagnostic tool, and get them to respond with something other than pages about brain tumors, rare diseases and other worst-case-scenario maladies. One suggestion is a list of possible issues related to the symptom a user searches for, ranked in order of likelihood. That sounds fine, except, is that really all that different than the situation today? If a susceptible user searches for the cause of a headache, and something like a brain tumor gets mentioned, whether in passing or at the bottom of a ranked list, won't they fixate on it or some other serious condition? While online health information could certainly be made more useful, trying to change it so as to carve out cyberchondria seems pretty pointless, as the hypochondriacs will simply find another source to feed their anxiety.Filed Under: cyberchondria
Companies: microsoft
