socialmedian: Google Uses Web Searches to Track Flu’s Spread

Hi there. I'm Jason, one of the founders of socialmedian.

socialmedian delivers the news, filtered by your network.

We'd love to have you join in.

You can use facebook connect to sign in.

Add News Flash

User-submitted headlines for this story

Clips

Google Uses Web Searches to Track Flu’s Spread - NYTimes.com

Source: Delicious/mbrownstone

Nov 11, 2008

Summary

Google Flu Trends is based on the simple idea that people who are feeling sick will probably turn to the Web for information, typing things like “flu symptoms” or “muscle aches” into Google. The service tracks such queries and charts their ebb and flow, broken down by regions and states.

Early tests suggest that the service 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.

Comments (2)

Billso,

Nov 11, 2008

This kind of system could be gamed, but it provides an early warning mechanism for flu outbreaks, and possibly other issues.

Profvrr,

Nov 12, 2008

This could easily be gamed. A better way is to track the actual outbreaks in real time, by texting. Exactly what Dr. Brilliant spoke about in his NY Times magazine article a few weeks ago.