Google Flu Trends

Posted by Miss Cellania in Medicine on November 13, 2008 at 12:32 pm



It seems logical that in areas where people are suffering from the flu that more search terms about the flu would roll into Google Search. So Google Trends has taken data from search inquiries related to the flu and made a map.

Of course, not every person who searches for “flu” is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries from each state and region are added together. We compared our query counts with data from a surveillance system managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and discovered that some search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in various regions of the United States.

At the site you can mouseover a state and see how active flu searches are. Kentucky is labeled as moderate, so I’d better get my flu shot! Link -Thanks, Jefffss!


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COMMENT

8 comments to "Google Flu Trends"

  1. Rocky Rook
    November 13th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    Yeah, but where is this going next? I'm sure there are other trends google is sending to the feds that the public isn't aware of.

  2. cheechman85
    November 13th, 2008 at 1:27 pm

    Rocky, I never thought of it that way. I mean the trends are raw data and I guess it interpreted many different ways.

  3. Alex
    November 13th, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    Seems like Texas is immune.

  4. Skipweasel
    November 13th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

    I wonder how this is adjusted. I mean, you couldn't just use the raw numbers, they'd be meaningless - even us British understand that some states are more populous than others.

    D'yer reckon they've adjusted it for population density, or by proportion who have internet access, or proportion literate enough to use a connection or what?

  5. DOJ
    November 13th, 2008 at 3:04 pm

    Look at the map. Florida has a runny nose.

  6. Byrd Brain
    November 13th, 2008 at 5:06 pm

    Hell, I wouldn't want to infect a Texan either.

  7. ted
    November 14th, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    Does this take into account all the people who were searching for someone named Flo, but had a typo?

  8. lovemeordie236
    November 15th, 2008 at 1:50 am

    Im lucky to live in Texas ^^


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