Google Removes What People Suggest Health Search Feature From SERPs

Google has quietly stopped one of its newer health search experiments. This is another change in how the company handles sensitive medical questions in search. The update focuses on the “What People Suggest” feature, which was added in March 2025 to show health-related stories and opinions from online conversations. When it first came out, the feature was meant to help users quickly find out what people on forums and social media were saying about living with certain conditions or dealing with symptoms.

As Google said, the feature was meant to balance expert medical information with lived experiences from people facing similar health issues. Using AI, Google grouped comments and discussion points into short, easy-to-scan themes. In theory, that gave searchers a faster way to understand how others were talking about issues like arthritis, exercise, or day-to-day symptom management. The feature was initially launched on mobile in the United States as part of Google’s broader push into AI-powered health search.

Now, that experiment is over. Google confirmed to The Guardian that “What People Suggest” has been removed as part of a broader simplification of the search results page. The company also said the move was not made because of quality or safety concerns. Instead, Google maintained that it still wants users to discover reliable health information from multiple sources, including forums and first-person conversations that many people find useful.

Even so, the decision stands out because health search is one of the most closely watched areas in Google’s ecosystem. Medical topics carry a much higher trust burden than product reviews, travel advice, or entertainment discussions. Pulling opinions from Reddit, X, Facebook, and similar platforms may offer human perspective, but it also creates a difficult challenge: how to surface personal experiences without blurring the line between anecdotal advice and trustworthy guidance. That may be one reason why the removal of this feature is getting so much attention across the search industry. This framing is an interpretation based on the feature’s purpose and Google’s public positioning around health results.

The timing is also important. Google’s “Check Up” event is the company’s annual stage for news about health-related products and AI. With Google continuing to refine how health information appears in search, SEO professionals and publishers will be watching closely to see what replaces features like this and whether expert-led content gains even more visibility going forward.