Google Health
ZD Net mentions a blog that claims to have identified an internal "Google Health" server that somehow got out of their securtiy zones. Snapshots of the alleged offering are at:
If this is to believed, Google Health will build on its strengths to provide highly customized and refined views of health information tailored to an individuals needs and preferences. Naturally, this requires the Google engine to "know" a lot about the individual asking the question. This may be problmatic to some and in principle, certainly the integration of these data with finance and other personal information (from one's Gmail account, say), will raise concern. But it also appears that for many individuals, such services are worth the price and trusted. It is also true that one could anonymize one's queries, but this is actually harder to do than one would think.
Increasingly, Google will have to become even more transparent on what it does with personal information. The real currency of Google is trust, and, frankly, the founders are among the most altrustic people in the industry. I would suspect personal information is in safe and good hands, since the company IS based on principles and the erosion of trust runs counter to even the most mercenary business interests.
If this is to believed, Google Health will build on its strengths to provide highly customized and refined views of health information tailored to an individuals needs and preferences. Naturally, this requires the Google engine to "know" a lot about the individual asking the question. This may be problmatic to some and in principle, certainly the integration of these data with finance and other personal information (from one's Gmail account, say), will raise concern. But it also appears that for many individuals, such services are worth the price and trusted. It is also true that one could anonymize one's queries, but this is actually harder to do than one would think.
Increasingly, Google will have to become even more transparent on what it does with personal information. The real currency of Google is trust, and, frankly, the founders are among the most altrustic people in the industry. I would suspect personal information is in safe and good hands, since the company IS based on principles and the erosion of trust runs counter to even the most mercenary business interests.
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