Google Inc., through Google.org, is launching “Flu Trends” to track geographic outbreaks of illnesses in time and warn potential victims early enough to enable them to get a preventive vaccine. Working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Flu Trends hopes to track the number of searches by Google users for flu related items like "thermometer" and "cold remedies." According to the Drudge Report "anonymized, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur each week," could indicate a flu outbreak in the area.

Google will track queries related to illness such as the flu by including thermometer, flu symptoms, muscle aches and chest congestion in their search operation. In a test last year, Google’s tool highlighted flu outbreaks two weeks faster than the tracking done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which relies on reports from local hospitals and state health departments. The CDC's chief of influenza surveillance, Dr. Lyn Finelli, said, "The data is really, really timely. They were able to tell us on a day-to-day basis the relative direction of flu activity for a given area. They were about a week ahead of us."

The timely warning could help officials warn residents to get their flu shots on time and also ensure there is an adequate supply of the vaccine to do so. Glen Nowak, a CDC spokesman said, "The sooner we have indication that flu is in a community, the earlier public health officials can take action."

Flu Trends was checked by Google for its accuracy by comparing five years of its previous flu related search data with data by the CDC. The tracking from both coincided though more tests are needed.

Though Google launched the product at the start of the flu season and data shows it has not had much of an impact on California. The flu is a relatively harmless illness that most people recover from yet it still manages to kill up to half a million people worldwide every year.

Flu Trends will not make personally identifiable information available only giving out aggregated statewide information. A similar service is provided by Yahoo, though this is essentially used by marketers to determine the popularity of specific products such as films, cars and rock bands. Currently flu is the only illness that will be tracked by Google though more may be added in the future.