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The search engine Google will soon a service that lets people their mental health online. People searching for "depression" on Google's search page will a link to a questionnaire along with their search result. The questionnaire will to see if you could be suffering from depression. There are nine questions on the self-assessment. Google has with America's National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) on the project. A NAMI spokesperson said Google users can the private questionnaire to them find out how depressed they are. He said this could people decide if they need to a doctor. The questionnaire will initially only available for Internet users in the USA.

Google's blog the questionnaire could people get treatment for depression more quickly. It said: "Statistics that those who symptoms of depression experience an average of a six- to eight-year delay in getting treatment after the onset of symptoms. We that awareness of depression can help and you, enabling quicker access to treatment." However, Dr Aaron Balick, an expert on how websites can help people, said Google's questionnaire the same as reading any online information about depression. He the BBC: "A better approach would …offering [people] resources and a direct line - perhaps a chat box - to local psychological services."