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Google.org, the company's philanthropic unit, has launched a Web tool that could spot regional flu outbreaks in the U.S. as early as a week before the CDC reports them, according to the New York Times.
Google Flu Trends analyzes searches on influenza (e.g., “flu symptoms”) to estimate flu activity in a given area, and then uses the data to create maps of where the illness may be spreading. Google believes the site may allow people to take precautions if influenza is in their region, the Times reports.
In developing Google Flu Trends, engineers mapped 5 years of influenza-related search data to CDC reports on the flu — and found a strong correlation between the two.
“We know [the tool] matches very, very well in the way flu developed in the la…