Those Google folks are just brilliant, aren’t they? In yet another moment of insight about human behavior, Google Trends has developed a map to track rises and falls in flu-related searches by location, working off the assumption that people suffering from the flu are more likely to search for information about it. One can track the total volume of flu search, study a national map of flu search trends, or enter your zip code and learn about local trends.
While it is unclear how accurately such a map can track the spread of flu, it potentially offers a powerful public health tool. I can’t get over what a clever use of search data this is.
Let’s think of the next big thing! What are some other forms of internet data that (if made public) could be of great value to the public interest?
Comments 1
jose — November 15, 2008
It is pretty ingenious. You ought to try the site outside.in -- it "geo-tags" blog entries so that you can get a view of that the local blogging community is talking about at any given time. I'm writing a paper on the possibilities of this type of local on-line networking on community power.