Google Docs – Features that didn’t make it.
You probably already know, dear reader, all about Google Docs – the free online office software suite complete with loads of free online storage, document versioning and all that cool stuff. But did you know about the other google docs that never made it to public beta? Introducing the long lost cousin; Google Doc M.D. …
Far from being an office software replacement, the first revision of Google Docs, was actually referred to as Google Doc. M.D. and was a comprehensive medical diagnosis search engine. Google Docs M.D. was capable of collecting symptoms and providing non-conclusive diagnoses for thousands of common and rare medical conditions and even provide tutorials for practical and easy to do diagnostic tests that could be performed in non-laboratory conditions to narrow down and even prove your diagnoses without expensive medical or laboratory tests.
Google Doc M.D. Search Results
Google Doc M.D. was already capable of diagnosing a large variety of conditions and provide useful advice on dealing with medical problems. Sadly the project was scrapped before the public Beta because there were too many concerns raised about the validity of a the medical opinion generated by Googles proprietary search algorithm. While every attempt was made to supply a reasonable disclaimer about medical advice from a computer in the end, the lawyers won and Google Doc M.D. was scrapped and the resources pushed towards making an online office suite of a similar name.
Tags: silly stuff