Google Trends: A Web-Based Tool for Real-Time Surveillance of Disease Outbreaks

• Published in: Clinical infectious diseases Vol. 49; no. 10; pp. 1557 - 1564
• Main Authors: Carneiro, Herman Anthony, Mylonakis, Eleftherios
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford The University of Chicago Press 15.11.2009; University of Chicago Press; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Data Collection - methods; Disease control; Disease Outbreaks; Disease prevention; Epidemics; Epidemiology; Humans; Infectious diseases; Influenza; Influenza A virus; Influenza, Human - epidemiology; Internet; Medical sciences; Preventive medicine; Search engines; Search terms; Surfing; SURFING THE WEB; Surveillance; Web services; West Nile virus; Epidemic; Infection; Surveillance

Google Flu Trends can detect regional outbreaks of influenza 7–10 days before conventional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance systems. We describe the Google Trends tool, explain how the data are processed, present examples, and discuss its strengths and limitations. Google Tren...