They say Santa Claus knows when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good, et cetera.
Good for him.
I could know all of that too, if I were to have a camera follow you around 24/7.
But does Santa Claus know when you've got the flu? Not unless you're outwardly displaying symptoms.
That's where Google, the Santa Claus of the 21st century, comes in - with Google Flu Trends!
GFT looks through all Google search logs, and highlights every search term related in some way to the flu. They then break them down for each US State - and through five years' worth of analysis, have determined that flu-related searches are generally higher when more people are reported sick with the flu.
Not only is this a neat little tool to tell you where the virus is going, traditional methods of gathering flu statistics generally take a week or two before completion, by which point most of those infected will be healthy. Google provides instantaneous data!
Best of all, maybe this will convince Madagascar to stop closing their ports as soon as somebody coughs.
--Ryan
P.S.: Look down! I've started using labels! Maybe not for their intended purpose, but baby steps, right?
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