Google sets out to co-opt the information experts

Information professionals have given a cautious welcome to a service that uses expert knowledge to help the public find reliable information.

Google Co-op is inviting people with specialist knowledge to improve internet searches by providing a set of links to the most reliable web pages on their areas of expertise.

Doctors specialising in heart disease, for example, can link the pages they think provide the most useful information on the condition. Then, when internet users search for heart disease on Google, a list of labels such as “symptoms”, “treatment” or “causes” will pop up, directing users to recommended sites. Users can also subscribe to the specific filters of particular experts or organisations they trust.

Heather Gardner, project librarian at the Derby Hospitals NHS trust, said Google’s project should be welcomed.

“The internet can cause anxiety because there is so much information out there and people don’t know what to trust,” she said. “A lot of people get a diagnosis and look it up on the web and get worried. Directing patients to good-quality, reliable information would be very useful.”

The service is currently a beta prototype to allow the company to incorporate feedback from users.

Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice-president of product management at Google, said: “Users can find the information they are looking for – no matter how specialised or specific – faster than ever.”

But Jackie Wickham, service manager at education online resource database Intute , sounded a note of caution. “The danger is that someone who is not reputable or is trying to sell something can set up a page,” she said. “It relies on the end-user having the skills to evaluate their reliability.”

A Google spokeswoman refused to confirm how many UK-based experts had signed up to Co-op , but US organisations whose filters users can subscribe to include the University of California, Harvard Medical School , and Stanford Hospital and Clinics.

As well as health, Google Co-op subjects developed so far include destination guides, computer/video games and cars. Those expert in areas not already covered can start a topic of their own.

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