Google’s Flu Trends site, a product of Google.org, has been updating itself with the latest wire reports and provides a search window where people can type in their ZIP code and locate the nearest flu-shot distributor.
Flu Trends also describes how it tracks outbreaks. "We've found that there is a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms," reads an explanation on the site. "Some search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening, and are therefore good indicators of flu activity. Our estimates, based on up-to-date aggregated Google search data, may indicate flu activity up to two weeks ahead of traditional flu surveillance systems."
However, the site still registers United States flu activity as "low." Areas of the country affected by the new strain of flu, particularly California and Texas, are also noted as having "low" activity. A graph on the site shows the level of flu-related search activity on a week-by-week basis.
