Remember that one of Google's precepts is "Do no evil?" The NYT tells a tale of the common good extrapolated from Google search terms.
We have found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for "flu" is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries from each state and region are added together. We compared our query counts with data from a surveillance system managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and discovered that some search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in various regions of the United States.
That's fascinating enough, but the really cool thing is this:
It turns out that traditional flu surveillance systems take 1-2 weeks to collect and release surveillance data, but Google search queries can be automatically counted very quickly. By making our flu estimates available each day, Google Flu Trends may provide an early-warning system for outbreaks of influenza.
CDC's Influenza Division is monitoring Google's data, and there are charts available to track the trend both for the country as a whole and by individual state.
Posted by Linkmeister at November 12, 2008 12:01 AM | TrackBackThis is seriously cool!
PS - Ask me sometime about Dear Daughter's flu shot experience this year. Oscar worthy drama!
Posted by: Juli Thompson at November 13, 2008 05:12 AMHeh. Mine wasn't dramatic, but that needle size was a little off-putting.
Posted by: Linkmeister at November 13, 2008 09:17 AM