Google Flutrends Processes Flu-related Search Terms to Plot Flu Activity Nationwide

Google has rolled out Flu Trends (www.google.org/flutrends), which uses computers to process millions of Internet searches people make for keywords that might be related to the flu — for instance “thermometer” “cough,” or “fever.” Flu Trends displays the results on a map of the U.S. and shows a chart of changes in flu activity around the country. Historical flu trend data are also overlayed. The x-axis of the graph represents the months of the year. Flu activity is represented in the y-axis. The data is meaningful because the Google division that created Flu Trends found a strong correlation between the number of Internet searches related to the flu and the number of people reporting flu symptoms.

Source:
http://www.google.org/flutrends