Google leads the way on sex health advice: study

AUCKLAND: Kiwis seeking sexual health advice on the internet after a Christmas holiday fling should type their query into Google rather than using a voiceactivated assistant, researchers say.

That is according to University of Otagoled research released yesterday, which found typing a search about sexual health into Google on a laptop was much more efficient than using Google Assistant or Apple’s Siri.

Prof Nick Wilson said his team made its findings by searching 50 questions about sexual health in each of Google, Google Assistant and Siri.

Typed Google searches found answers or advice from expert sources in about half the time of voiceactivated searches, he said.

They were also more effective at finding local experts, such as the New Zealand Family Planning Association and a New Zealand university site.

‘‘The research also shows that more needs to be done to encourage internet users to treat information in online lifestyle magazines with caution as compared to expert sources,’’ Prof Wilson said.

Despite typed searches being more effective, all search engines could be better at identifying expert sources, he said.

The Otago team published their findings in the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal.

They became interested in their research after an earlier United Kingdom survey of 3221 internet users found 41% went online for answers to healthrelated questions. — NZN