Last but not least: Google's fight for a healthy world
Just in time for the start of fall, Google has also launched its early warning system for flu outbreaks in this country. After the USA, 20 other countries, including Switzerland, can now benefit from the online tool.
The Early warning system is based on the assumption that patients first find out about their symptoms online before going to the doctor. "Google Flu Trends provides estimates of the frequency of flu cases for a variety of countries and regions around the world. The data is generated almost in real time on the basis of collected search queries," says Google spokesperson Kay Oberbeck, explaining how the online analysis tool works when asked by Pressetext. Some of these estimates are compared with official historical flu data, for example from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control or national health organizations, in order to map flu activity in certain countries or regions more accurately. Sounds plausible, somehow. In the USA at any rate, where Google has been offering the service under the name "Flu Trends" since November 2008, experts are overwhelmingly positive about the accuracy of the prediction. Incidentally, the service is free for users - Google.org bears the costs. An organization that the company likes to call its "philanthropic arm".
