Google Uses Searches to Track Flu’s Spread

[groovedaddy]

SAN FRANCISCO — There is a new common symptom of the flu, in addition to the usual aches, coughs, fevers and sore throats. Turns out a lot of ailing Americans enter phrases like “flu symptoms” into Google and other search engines before they call their doctors.

That simple act, multiplied across millions of keyboards in homes around the country, has given rise to a new early warning system for fast-spreading flu outbreaks, called Google Flu Trends.

Tests of the new Web tool from Google.org, the company’s philanthropic unit, suggest that it may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In early February, for example, the C.D.C. reported that the flu cases had recently spiked in the mid-Atlantic states. But Google says its search data show a spike in queries about flu symptoms two weeks before that report was released. Its new service at google.org/flutrends analyzes those searches as they come in, creating graphs and maps of the country that, ideally, will show where the flu is spreading.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/technology/internet/12flu.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

[Sabriel]

1. Does this make anyone else a tad bit squeamish?

Google uses common searches to generalize trends or--dare I say--patterns of thinking?

I sure hope my tinfoil hat also serves to repel influenza....

[groovedaddy]

3. If they use it for this, WHAT ELSE are they using it for and how do they

determine where I live? Yeah, it strikes me as kind of "big brotherish".

[Lifetimedem]

2. this is not too reliable imho,

my daughter in law in Mn had it in oct, so did I, my neighbors and several friends and grandchildren also had it then.. but we never googled it, so google and their chart do not know it.

i think this has been a very early flu season