Google Will Help Track Spread Of Influenza With Flu Trends

Washington (dbTechno) - Google has announced the launch of a brand new online tool that aims to help the U.S. track the spread of influenza, or the flu in the U.S.

It is that time of year again when many cases of the flu are going to begin to pop up all across the U.S.

Google has worked with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help track this spread with their Flu Trends program.

The idea here is to allow people to be able to watch a map to see where the flu is spreading.

On top of that, it can also alert others when there is the chance of an epidemic or something of that nature.

It is believed that long-term this program could be used on a global scale to help other countries track other diseases.

Google Flu Trends will use search terms people put into their search engine to see where the flu is becoming a hot topic.

They will then be able to take this data and alert the CDC and others to stay one step in front of the disease.

Google has announced that through research, they have found search terms that are good clues of serious flu activity.

Google is going to be keeping the search terms it uses for the software very private, but will track flu activity in real time.