Google tracks swine flu progress

Google.org is now using flu-related internet search traffic in Mexico to create an online map that will provide information on how the disease is spreading.

The philanthropic sector of the internet giant has been running the “Google Flu Trends” website since late last year, but the new swine flu virus has forced the website to take a more narrow focus.

“We launched Google Flu Trends after finding a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms,” Google software engineers Jeremy Ginsberg and Matt Mohebbi said in a blog post.

“Google Flu Trends may be able to detect influenza outbreaks earlier than other systems because it estimates flu activity in near real time.”

But the engineers have said that because the data is experimental, it should not be trusted as an authoritative source.

“But the system has detected increases in flu-related searches in Mexico City and a few other Mexican states in recent days, beginning early in the week of 19 to 25 April.”