Google Wants to Know Where It Hurts

If you don't yet know why Google is going to be bigger than Microsoft ever was, here is another example. Google announced that it is launching Google Health, which will allow users to have quick access to their medical records online. What Google is great at is figuring out where there are gaps in access to information and filling in those gaps. Looks at Google Analytics, which tracks web data for free, or Google Documents, which are accessible from anywhere.

Of course, the scary part of this is the privacy issue. In 5-10 years when Google has people using all aspects of its services, from e-mail to word documents and spreadsheets to health info to search capabilities and whatever else they think of next, the company will know everything about you. And don't think they won't sell a whole lot of that information as they position themselves to dominate the advertising world. In the health arena, at least, they are bound by certain privacy laws, which should help. I just worry about a stolen laptop or a hacker.

It's a tradeoff, but having access to your medical records anytime, anywhere will have incredible value for many people. In some sense, it's surprising that we don't already have some system like this in the U.S.