Featured Resource: Google Flu Trends
October 19th, 2009
Produced by google.org, a non-profit branch of Google, Google Flu Trends uses data generated from Google user searches to estimate current seasonal flu incidence(the idea is that if a lot of people in, say, Utah, are running searches related to the flu, then there’s probably a higher incidence of the flu there).
Because this data is based on real time projections, it can be produced faster than more traditional methods of data collection (however, it should be noted that these are still estimated projections, and would need to be backed by public health data based on actual reported flu cases). This data is depicted graphically as a series of maps, and can also be downloaded.