Google Inc (GOOG) Wants Us to Search Healthy

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has always been a very socially conscious company over the years, being an activist for various social causes, and certainly has been a vociferous advocate for a free and open Internet. In that vein, it would make perfect sense then to know that one of the bigger social issues in the country now has to do with obesity and eating habits. Google is announcing this week that it will be taking its own role in helping users make more healthful decisions when it comes to food choices.

Thursday, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced that it would soon start rolling out nutritional information about food products in its Google Search results. This fits in nicely with Google’s recent acquisition of Zagat, the famous restaurant and food-service rating agency. Recently, Google has started integrating some restaurant search features keyed by the Zagat purchase, and the company said on its official blog that the nutritional information will start appearing in the U.S. in the next 10 days.

“From the basics of potatoes and carrots to more complex dishes like burritos and chow mein, you can simply ask, ‘How much protein is in a banana?’ or ‘How many calories are in an avocado?’ and get your answer right away,” the post said. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) reports that it will likely have more than 1,000 food items, dishes and entire meals available for search into the nutritional information – and this will likely also include the ability to search for proper serving sizes and related foods that might be healthier substitutes.

What are your thoughts about Google providing this information in its search results? Would you normally go to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Search to look up this information in the past, and would you find this useful or helpful for you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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