Google Flu Tracker Reports Keyword Searches to the CDC

In another trend tracking development, a newly released a Google Flu tracker which shows trends based on key word searches for flu related terms. The new site called Google Flu (http://www.google.org/flutrends/) allows users to see what the tracker shows for people searching for flu terms by clicking on a flu map for their state. Got the chills and wonder if that is a flu symptom or maybe you just want to see what all the flu symptoms are so you search the term "flu symptoms." Wonder how many people in your area have the flu? Or how your area compares to other states? Google Flu tracker breaks the search data down and presents it to users on the flu map. Google's web site explains the Flu tracker report is based on analysis of how many times certain key terms are searched and where those searches are coming from. Goggle's Flu trends page does not identify the words they use, but does mention that there is a correlation between the number of individuals searching about flu symptoms, and those who have the flu. Users can see the peaks and valleys of flu trends by clicking their state on the flu map.

Using the results from Google Flu Tracker, Google reports to the CDC allowing insight into what areas of the US have higher levels of ongoing searches. Google believes this flu tracker will be useful to the CDC as it occurs in real time and is updated daily. Other CDC methods for tracking flu trends or outbreaks require longer amounts of time to gather the data. Google reported results of previous years' searches to the CDC and determined the flu trends search data correlated with the flu outbreaks in different flu map areas.

Google Flu Trends flu map and tracker have been in the works for more than a year and on its release appears to have a substantial amount of historical data available from previous years. Concern about protection of privacy is addressed by Google on the Flu trend page by saying that they value their users' privacy and cannot tell who the individual searcher is. The data accumulates is based solely on the key word search not the person doing the searching.

If Google reports to the CDC, Google Flu trends may reveal where the the flu map shows the most flu outbreaks are occurring but the general public has to wonder what is next in the world of trend tracking?