Thanks to a client who read my last blog posting I heard about a recent Forrester report. The report stated:
“19% of all US online consumers with a medical condition use Social Computing for health information.” (source)
Well there you have it. Let’s get prepared, because Gen X (proudly my generation - just made it at 39!) and Gen Y (who use it more frequently, 27%) are quickly taking up social computing because of its instant gratification and interactivity. However, as we get older, our parents (Baby Boomers) get older, I believe this number will dramatically increase. Again, it all comes back to search as the road map the road map for all (well, at least for information). In fact Forrester reports that consumers who are using social computing like blogs, wikis, forums, chat rooms [insert next big thing here], etc, for health are much more likely to start their online health research with a search engine. In the years ahead that search engine will ost likely be on a cell phone or mobile device; but that’s a blog for another day.
