The Newest Google Mash-Up is a Sneeze

Sam Gustin writes: Big Brother Google is watching you...sneeze.

The search juggernaut is launching a new tracking tool -- in conjunction with the Centers For Disease Control -- to identify influenza outbreaks by location much more rapidly than existing methods, the company says.

The initiative stems from efforts by Google.org, the search juggernaut's philanthropic arm, to track and combat infectious diseases worldwide.

"It turns out that traditional flu surveillance systems take 1-2 weeks to collect and release surveillance data, but Google search queries can be automatically counted very quickly," Jeremy Ginsberg and Matt Mohebbi, two Google software engineers, wrote on the company's blog. "By making our flu estimates available each day, Google Flu Trends may provide an early-warning system for outbreaks of influenza."

Google says its data is available much more quickly than the C.D.C. numbers, which have to be received and processed from thousands of health care sources.

"The earlier the warning, the earlier prevention and control measures can be put in place, and this could prevent cases of influenza," Dr. Lyn Finelli, who runs the C.D.C.'s flu tracking efforts, told the New York Times.