Ken Nelson

Google can spot flu trends faster than other methods. How? People do flu related queries. A little GIS magic later… you have a flu trend.

We have found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for "flu" is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries from each state and region are added together. We compared our query counts with data from a surveillance system managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and discovered that some search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in various regions of the United States.

 

It seems to me that Google could use this trend information about searches to buy stocks or perform other strategic investments.

It may be time to regulate them.  Nah… just kidding. That would mess things up. Happy investing Google!

Besides… you can do your own trend spotting.

Here I learn that residents of Houston, Texas and Texas in general seem to search for “bail bond” more than anybody else.