It seems I am not the only one who Googles my symptoms before heading to the doctor. Google Flu Trends tracks search terms to predict when the flu will hit certain areas within the United States — an epidemic indicator, if you like. While it’s a good idea and could be extended to pseudo-prediction of epidemics and pandemics, this kind of ’searchsourcing’ will only be useful if Google remains insanely popular.
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Datestamp:
- Thursday
- 13th November 2008
- 23:11 hrs

