Google announced they've been crawling the web for health and medical information and then had them fact checked by "medical doctors at Google and the Mayo Clinic for accuracy" and is soon going to be providing much more detailed medical and health related queries to users.
A search for [frostbite] currently brings up the older knowledge graph, which was launched in December 2013 but soon, you will find a much more appealing version, with graphics and tabs for "about," "symptoms," and "treatments."
Here are before and after pictures:
Here is an animated GIF of this in action from Google:
Google said that one in 20 Google searches are for health-related information and they want to provide a better experience for these users.
Google said:
We worked with a team of medical doctors (led by our own Dr. Kapil Parakh, M.D., MPH, Ph.D.) to carefully compile, curate, and review this information. All of the gathered facts represent real-life clinical knowledge from these doctors and high-quality medical sources across the web, and the information has been checked by medical doctors at Google and the Mayo Clinic for accuracy.That doesn't mean these search results are intended as medical advice. We know that cases can vary in severity from person to person, and that there are bound to be exceptions. What we present is intended for informational purposes only - and you should always consult a healthcare professional if you have a medical concern.
This should roll out in the US over the next few days for English queries.
Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land has some more information.
Of course, those SEOs at WebMD and other health related web sites can't be all that happy right now. It all goes back to the swiss army knife analogy by Google.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
