Google-owned video streaming platform YouTube is improving YouTube Health in India with two new features – health source information panels and health content shelves that will be available for users in English and Hindi. The new features will provide context cues aimed at helping people more easily access videos from verified health sources. YouTube Health is a series of health-related content from verified sources on the Google-owned platform.
The new features will help people access videos from verified health sources more easily. Health source information panels will provide context to help viewers identify videos from authoritative sources. These health labels will show up under videos from accredited health organizations and government entities, so viewers can better evaluate the source of information and distinguish credible health content on YouTube.
Health content shelves will more effectively highlight videos from authoritative sources when viewers search for specific health topics. For example, when users search for specific health conditions such as heart disease, breast cancer among many others, a new content shelf in search will surface videos related to the relevant health topic from accredited health organizations and government entities. These shelves are intended to visually separate and highlight authoritative videos in search.
To identify which sources to include in these new health features, YouTube Health initially used a set of principles developed by a panel of experts convened by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in the United States. The World Health Organization and NAM recently convened a meeting of interdisciplinary experts from around the world to review and validate the principles for global application.
YouTube created YouTube Health for users to find reliable content in over 8 Indian languages from authoritative sources featuring content from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, leading hospitals and popular creators. Since February 2020, YouTube’s information panels and efforts to help users find authoritative COVID-19 information across YouTube’s homepage have been shown more than 250 billion times in India.
