A new web tool from Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the search engine giant, has been able to chart the advent of flu epidemics before being reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (The CDC) in the US.
As a bout of coughing or sneezing is now frequently followed by a search on the word ‘symptoms’ online, the search engine can trace regional outbreaks in as much as 10 days before they are officially recognised.
Google can spot sufferers earlier as The CDC is dependent on a series of regional health data provided from many sources.
Currently only available in the US, the company hopes to extend the service to other countries and other health issues.
Speaking to The New York Times, Hal Varian, Google’s chief economist, said: “Most forecasting is basically trend extrapolation. This works remarkably well, but tends to miss turning points, times when the data changes direction. Our hope is that Google data might help with this problem.”
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Date Published: November 12, 2008
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