Old people use Yahoo. Young people use Google.

One of the most interesting things I have found when talking to patients is the preference of search engines and websites used to search for health information.

Generally, from what I have noticed from patient conversations:

Older patients (age 65 and up) : Type in WebMD into search bar –> uses WebMD for information –> Goes to use Yahoo
Patients (ages 30-65): Goes to WebMD –> Google for more information
Younger Patients (30 and under): Go to Google and searches for information —> Web MD

Why is this?

Allegiance lies with E-mail
The majority of older patients have an allegiance to a search engine based on the type of e-mail used. It just so happens that the majority of the older adults uses Yahoo Mail as their e-mail and hence, they use Yahoo to search. Why Yahoo? Most of the homepages at the library are set to the Yahoo homepage. Not to mention the huge, “Sign-In” to your email box in the upper right hand corner of Yahoo’s page. This “allegiance to search engines” based on e-mail for older adults seems to be dominated by Yahoo which is surprising because I would expect Microsoft to have the older adults using their search engine. However, upon opening MSN.com, there is no indication as to where one may sign up for e-mail. Yahoo’s idiot proof layout dominates the older generation.

Here’s another case. My father is in his 60’s. I set the homepage to open to Google search. My father doesn’t use Google search. The first thing he does is go to his e-mail, which he uses yahoo for. After using yahoo e-mail, he then types in yahoo.com to search for things. Despite having Google on the homepage and him seeing it everytime he opens his browser, his search preference is still with yahoo.

Here’s another scenerio.  I have FireFox installed on my laptop.   The homepage is set to open to firefox start page, which is essentially google search.  My 50-year-old aunt would type in “yahoo” into the search box just to then use yahoo search.  I’ve noticed this among other older users and their allegiance to yahoo in nursing homes with computer training.

As for myself, I have always wondered why I choose Google to search as opposed to other search engines. It must be that I use g-mail for my e-mails. Again, allegiance to search engine based on e-mail used.

Health Search
WebMD still seems to be the primary source of health information for patients, despite them complaining how unorganized and confusing it is. When I ask patients why they prefer WebMD over other search engines such as google, medstory, etc. The replies are varied:

• WebMD has correct information
• I don’t like looking over tons of results
• How do I know if the information is correct from google or medstory results

  It appears that the “MD” in the WebMD’s name automatically makes people think that the material on that site is legit and written by healthcare professionals. Perhaps GoogleHealth should change itself to GoogleMD or HealthVault should change itself to MicrosoftMD. I still, to this very day, do not use WebMD because the mere sight of it gives me a headache.