I’ve recently started exploring the 3 major Personal Health information storage solutions, mainly because Google finally entered the market and it got interesting but also because they seem so visually different and yet do the same things.

First, there is Revolution Health, who I thought was about personal health storage but now appears to be a news portal for health information. To be honest, it took me over a minute to even fine the registration link on this page and I didn’t need to register to read the news. Who knows what I’d gain by registering…

Second, Microsoft HealthVault. This time I found the registration but really couldn’t decide if I wanted to bother. One thing I did know was that I didn’t want to bother filtering through all the text and images to figure out what I was registering for. After many minutes of reading I seem to have learned that they would like to integrate with personal health devices, like insulin pumps, which really doesn’t concern me, or most of the population that I know…. They still want to store your personal information, they just don’t want to focus on it.

Finally there is Google Health (beta). It’s not pretty by any stretch of the imagination but it’s clear. In 20 seconds I knew what they were offering and how to get it. I also knew what to expect once I did register by simply looking at the screen shot they have placed on the page. It might be ugly, but it’s simple and in a overwhelming market like health care, simple is a welcome alternative.

Next post I will look at the registration process. I’m curious to see who (not holding my breath) made it the least involved.