WebProNews

Tag: Google Flu Trends

  • Google Flu Trends Spreads To Eight More Countries

    The next time bird flu, swine flu, or any other nasty bug strikes, it’ll be possible to get a significantly better idea of the effects worldwide.  Today, Google Flu Trends started processing information in eight more countries.

    Google decided to focus on the southern hemisphere – where it will soon be the winter flu season – with this update, and Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, South Africa, and Uruguay are the specific countries for which the company will now show national (and sometimes regional) estimates of flu activity.

    A post on the Official Google.org Blog noted, "This can be especially important when people from many countries converge in one place, like in South Africa for the World Cup.  South Africa is the first country we’re adding in Africa, and we hope Google Flu Trends will provide useful information for football fans and foes alike."

    Then Google chose to conduct a more minor update covering a couple of other countries, as well, revising its Flu Trends models for Australia and New Zealand for the sake of increased accuracy.

    Let’s hope that all of this helps address concerns about Google Flu Trends, or better yet, that enough people stay well to make it a moot point.

  • Google Shows Flu Trends for 121 Cities in the U.S.

    Microsoft is not the only one with some new offerings in the way of health search today. Google has added a slew of new cities to its Flu Trends product. The move is timed well, as the company acknowledges that it is National Influenza Vaccination Week.

    "Since the strain of influenza that is active (H1N1) is novel, no one knows exactly what will happen next. However, the CDC is warning that one possibility is a second spike of flu activity, which is what occurred in 1957 when another novel strain of influenza spread in the United States," says Google Software Engineer Matt Mohebbi. "We’ve been chatting with public health officials about new ways we can help people understand the spread of flu during this unusual time and today we’re excited to bring city level flu estimates to 121 cities in the United States."

    Google Flu Trends

    "By tracking the popularity of certain Google search queries, we’re able to estimate the level of flu in near real-time," says Mohebbi. "Google Flu Trends is updated daily and may provide early detection of flu activity, since traditional flu surveillance systems often take days or weeks to collect and release data."

    The city-level estimates provided by Google Flu Trends are considered "experimental" because they have not been validated with official data, but Google says that the estimates are made in a similar manner to its national estimates, which have been validated.

    A complete list of the cities Google tracks can be found here.

    Related Articles:

    > Bing Gets New Health Search Features

    > More Americans Going Online For Health Information

    > Can Google Save Us From Pestilence?