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 doctor.
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 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 came out.
Google Uses Web Searches to Track Flu’s Spread – NYTimes.com This is a very interesting but obvious concept.
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Sure, this is a cool techie thing, and they say it’s anonymous, but I’m not really sure. I think I’ll just start doing all my Googling through TOR.
How long until I get a personal visit from the CDC next time I search for ‘flu’?
“We have a court order to detain you based on your searches for insert-horrible-disease.”
If you take Darwin to the Nth level, colds and the flu keep humans strong and social medicine makes us weak.
Interesting phenomenon – these sore losers who need to apply all the attributes of their now-defeated regency to the democracy-oriented politicians who just beat their collective butts.
Has this blog become their cyber-surrogate to sitting around at the American Legion bar on a Friday night and whining about how “they” would have won the VietNam War?
How fracking off-topic can you get, Alfie? Are you always that paranoid? Have you had your hemorrhoids checked?
#6 – you have a new crystal ball?
This shouldn’t surprise anyone.
I do not doubt Google has spent much time improving their capability to sort and parse data in correlation with location (and other criteria) to put together various statistical charts/analyses that they are either looking for a market in which to sell it, or may already be peddling behind closed doors.
Isn’t that what AV SW if for? BTW, can anyone stop the spread of this?
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=311292910842090
Some civil liberties advocates are up in arms about this, but this is precisely the sort of thing that collective intelligence can help with, without violating privacy. The only thing reported, after all, is the general area in which a flu search occurs, which can produce useful outbreak information. Don’t hyperventilate, other than stumbling in their dealings with the Chinese, Google has done well by their corporate motto so far.
Does this mean I can create an epidemic of world-class proportions simply by pinging Google with thousands of inquiries for “flu symptoms”?