Google launched an ambitious initiative Monday that aims to give people a central place online to store their health records and then share them with health-care providers.

The public can go today to www.google.com/health and create profiles that include basic medical information such as existing medical conditions, allergies and any medicines being taken, Google officials said.

People who sign up at Google Health can also import medical records from U.S. pharmacies and medical facilities that have signed on as partners, which so far include Longs Drug Stores, Walgreens Pharmacy, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and several others. (Also see comments from Dr. John Halamka, CIO of Beth Isreael Deaconess Hospital in Boston, who sits on Google's Health Advisory Council.)

"Google Health is all about pulling together documents from your doctor's office, labs and pharmacies to provide a holistic picture of your health," said Google Vice President Marissa Mayer, who was joined by health industry professionals to launch the project at a press conference at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Google is one of several groups trying to "democratize" health care by allowing people to access and take control of their health records. Others include Microsoft, which announced its Health Vault initiative last year, WebMD and Revolution Health Group, founded by AOL cofounder Steve Case.

Concerns about privacy and security are seen as a big hurdle. Google says it will store health data in servers that are more secure than those it uses for other services. Users will be able to decide who has access to their records and to revoke that access at any time, Mayer said.

Google Health still has a long way to go, she acknowledged. "There are thousands of partnerships that need to be formed and petabytes of information that needs to be brought online and put into the hands of the patient," she said.

Like many of Google's new services, Google Health is in beta, although officials said anyone can sign up for it and start entering their health data.

Mayer argued that it makes sense for Google to take on such a project because two thirds of Internet users rely on Google for searching the Web about a drug or illness.

Google won't place advertisements in Google Health, company officials said. Asked how it will make money, Google sees the service as a way to increase the overall value of its services. There will be a search box on each page of Google Health that takes people to Google's usual results pages that do include advertisements.