Ask Makes Smart Answers Healthier

With technology companies ranging from the titans of the Internet to the stealthiest web startups locking on to health-related information, we think signs point to 2008 being a big year for healthcare and the online world.

Ask’s director of online information resources, Gary Price, let us know about the new Health Smart Answers appearing on Ask.com now, as the company takes a step toward the melding of health information with search resources. Here’s a sample query on hip replacement, a common procedure these days for many people.

A study Ask commissioned with Harris Interactive found that people rely on the Internet nearly as much as they do their primary doctors when it comes to healthcare information. It’s an area where Ask wants to be in front those searchers with information at their fingertips (as Gary likes to refer to Smart Answers.)

Partnerships with Healthline and ex-AOL CEO Steve Case’s Revolution Health provide content – including medical definitions, images, links to reference materials and other data – for Health Smart Answers on Ask.

We hear far too often tales of the dangers of the Internet. Spending much time with the mainstream media will make one think that every profile out there conceals a vicious predator, every link goes to a website stuffed with content that would make the most open-minded person hit the Close button like they were playing Whack A Mole.

It’s enough to make people yank their kids off the Web for good. That would be a shame because while the bad stuff makes headlines, the good stuff outweighs the bad. Some of the good things are really neat, and fortunately Gary Price at Ask has brought a new resource to our attention.

The International Children’s Digital Library has been created by the University of Maryland with an assist from the Internet Archive. Their intent was to assemble a world class library online of outstanding children’s books.

To get the best benefit from the Library, people have to be made aware of it. Gary, a librarian by training, suggested the Smart Answer team at Ask could help with this. They have, and now a number of queries like children’s books and related searches on Ask will pop the Library up in the Smart Answer area.

Gary feels that whether one has kids or not, the user interface at the Library deserves a look. A look at the Simple Search page shows how the Library uses age groups, characters, and even colors to enable children to find something to read.

Search results show up in a center box, and the Ajax interface allows the visitor to go from one group of thumbnails to the next without leaving the page. Choose a book to read, and you find nice big scans of colorful pages displayed on the monitor.

While the Internet is not a place to let younger children wander around without guidance (and the same could be said for some adults), there are sites that will help them be better for seeing them. Maybe that’s the Smart Answer critics of the Internet need to see themselves.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.