Trends in Google search queries can be quite interesting and informative. A new Google site uses the tendency of people to seek online help for health problems, such as flu (which by the way, kills 500,000 people worldwide every year). The New York Times explains:
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.
Man, technology is a beautiful thing.
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