Google Tracking Outbreaks

by Brian on 11/12/2008

Here’s an interesting article on how Google is using their search data to track flu outbreaks. Google has created a nice page for the flue data, but looks like its only available for the states.

[Google] suggests that it may be possible to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) …its search data showed a spike in queries on flu symptoms two weeks before the report was released.

Now employees playing hooky can check if their absence can be justified.

Related posts:

  1. Open letter to Larry Page and Sergey Brin
  2. Google Search Results
  3. Google Chrome EULA
  4. Google Chart API
  5. Google Math

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