Googling for the flu

Is there anything Google can't do? Omnipresence is omniscience -- at least potentially:

If you have a fever, headache and runny nose, you might go to Google and type the words "flu symptoms" to see whether you've come down with influenza.

Google knows that you might do something like that, and it also knows which U.S. state you're in. Now, it's putting that information together in a tool that Google says could detect flu outbreaks faster than traditional systems currently in use.

Google's new public health initiative, Google Flu Trends, looks at the relative popularity of a slew of flu-related search terms to determine where in the U.S. flu outbreaks may be occurring.

This CNN article goes on to note:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collaborated with Google on the project, helping validate and refine the model . . .

Researchers found a tight correlation between the relative popularity of flu-related search terms and CDC's surveillance data, Ginsberg said.

In the 2007-08 flu season, Google accurately estimated current flu levels one to two weeks faster than published CDC reports in each of the nine U.S. surveillance regions . . .

Check out Google Flu Trends here. Which reminds me -- time to get my flu shot.

Posted by David on November 12, 2008 9:49 PM