Google Flu Trends shows flu activity around the world based on search terms.
"We have found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for "flu" is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries are added together. We compared our query counts with traditional flu surveillance systems and found that many 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 different countries and regions around the world."
In Canada, right now, it is intense. Google has data on all provinces except PEI and Quebec - and there is none from the territories.
For people in the United States, Google.org also has a flu-shot locator service.
Google Flu Shot Locator Shows Where To Get Vaccines Near You!, Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land (Nov 10)
Posted by Gwen at November 11, 2009 02:21 PM