Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Can Predict the Flu

Posted by kdawson on from the sees-you-when-you're-sleeping dept.

An anonymous reader mentions Google Flu Trends, a newly unveiled initiative of Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm. The claim is that this Web service, which aggregates search data to track outbreaks of influenza, can spot disease trends up to 2 weeks before Centers for Disease Control data can. The NYTimes writeup begins: "What if Google knew before anyone else that a fast-spreading flu outbreak was putting you at heightened risk of getting sick? And what if it could alert you, your doctor and your local public health officials before the muscle aches and chills kicked in? That, in essence, is the promise of Google Flu Trends, a new Web tool ... unveiled on Tuesday, right at the start of flu season in the US. Google Flu Trends is based on the simple idea that people who are feeling sick will tend to turn to the Web for information, typing things like 'flu symptoms; or 'muscle aches' into Google. The service tracks such queries and charts their ebb and flow, broken down by regions and states."

4 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. Damn by tgd · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Thats a seriously great idea ...

    It totally sidesteps the problem of early symptoms not typically getting people to the doctor where it can potentially be reported/tracked.

    There's probably a lot of trends that can be detected the same way beyond just disease.

    1. Re:Damn by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 4, Interesting

      True - if weren't for the pesky fact that the Google curves and the CDC curves differ significantly, and not just in lag time.

      Not according to the graph here

    2. Re:Damn by b4upoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What we are seeing is the edge of a very powerful, useful, and potentially deadly technology.Given a large enough quantity of data it is quite likely that correlations of seemingly unrelated data can be used as accurate predictors for other events. For example the price of eggs might be used to predict movement in the price of gold. Obviously that is overly simple but by using computational power and large data bases there should be methods found of predicting all kinds of things that may be world changing.

  2. Finally, a get rich scheme that will work! by nilbog · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1. Invest in Tamiflu (the leading medication to treat flu symptoms)
    2. Organize a massive effort to do web searches for "flu symptoms"
    3. Wait for Google to sound the flu alarm
    4. Profit!

    --
    or else!