MEREDITH CORP.’S NEWEST FORAY INTO the digital space comes with the acquisition of Healia, a consumer health search engine.
Although the financial details of the deal were undisclosed, analysts said the company stands to gain significantly from the contextual targeting and marketing opportunities that come with owning a health care search portal.
Healia’s value in the space is that its proprietary technology allows users to create a highly relevant set of results by personalizing their health search based on factors such as gender, age, and ethnic group, as well as by focusing on categories such as prevention or drug side effects.
As with Microsoft’s acquisition of search software developer Medstory in February, the move was seen as a way to capitalize on the reported 8 million Americans who search online for health info daily.
While Healia will continue to exist as a stand-alone Web site, look for Meredith to incorporate elements of the search technology onto the health sections of existing sites like BetterHomesandGardens.com.
In addition, Healia will roll out features like the ability for customers to search PubMed–a government database of abstracts published from medical journals dating back to the 1950s.
“We’re looking at how to expand the notion of search for health info, and building the tools that allow people to find health info in a new way,” said Dr. Tom Eng, CEO and founder, Healia. “Working with Meredith’s scale, consumer reach and marketing expertise gives us a straight shot to the kind of growth we need to achieve our goals.”
This is Meredith’s fourth acquisition in the last year, following its purchase of online marketing firms O’Grady Meyers, Genex and New Media Strategies.
I found this article last week and thought it would be useful for those wanting a health specific search engine.They have the option to place it on your website so I think I am going to put it on my main site and my message board.
