Google wants to know if you're sick

Google is attempting to find out how much of a role Internet searches play in the self-diagnosis process.

The company plans later Wednesday to start rolling out a subtle question at the bottom of pages with search results for a few common ailments, such as "Did you search because you or someone you know may have an ear infection?" That question will only appear for a very small number of users who search for terms such as "ear infection," but it will help Google start to understand how many people are searching on such terms looking for treatment remedies or options as opposed to doing research, said Dr. Roni Ziegler, a product manager forGoogle Health.

Understanding how many people are searching on Google for help diagnosing their health could improve future search results, the company thinks.

(Credit: Google)

In a way, this is an extension of the work Google has done tracking the flu with Google Flu Trends. The company noticed that search activity related to the flu tends to rise about two weeks before a similar rise is reported to the Centers for Disease Control by doctors, but years of data on flu patterns validates those trends, Ziegler said. Similar data does not exist for more common health issues.

Google is not exactly sure what it wants to do with that data, or how much useful data will be produced by the experiment. Ultimately, however, everything at Google goes back into the search process, so it's possible that the data could be used to offer searchers more options, such as "Did you mean to search for treatment options for X?" at the top of the search page.

This is a temporary project: Google plans to gather data for several weeks, starting Wednesday afternoon.

Apple Patch Day: 67 Mac OS X, Safari vulnerabilities

On the same day Microsoft shipped a bundle of patches for gaping holes in its PowerPoint software, Apple followed suit, dropping a monster Mac OS X update to correct 67 security vulnerabilities.

The sudden Apple Patch Day also included a patch to cover a trio of flaws in the Safari Web browser (Mac OS X and Windows).

The OS X update covers flaws in 31 different components, including several known (and dated) issues in open-source packages used by Apple. These include vulnerabilities in Apache, BIND, CUPS, OpenSSL, PHP and Kerberos.

The update also fixes what Apple describes as “arbitrary code execution” vulnerabilities in ATS, CFNetwork, CoreGraphics, Cscope, Disk Images and Spotlight.

The full list of affected software, components and discussion of risk isavailable on Apple’s support site.

Separately, Apple shipped new versions of its Safari 3 and Safari 4 (beta) browsers to cover the following issues:

• libxml (CVE-2008-3529) A heap buffer overflow exists in libxml’s handling of long entity names. Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved bounds checking. Affects both Mac OS X and Windows XP and Vista.
• Safari (CVE-2009-0162) Multiple input validation issues exist in Safari’s handling of “feed:” URLs. Accessing a maliciously crafted “feed:” URL may lead to the execution of arbitrary JavaScript. This update addresses the issues by performing additional validation of “feed:” URLs. These issues do not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.5. Also affects Windows XP and Vista.
• WebKit (CVE-2009-0945) A memory corruption issue exists in WebKit’s handling of SVGList objects. Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved bounds checking. Apple credits security researcher “Nils” for reporting this issue, suggesting it is the flaw exploited during this year’s CanSecWest contest.