I love Google. I don't really know anyone who doesn't, for that matter. But I sometimes feel that Google is one of the only online companies that cannot disappoint. Search engine, Gmail, Docs, Chrome - each function constantly growing, improving and staying awesomely, wholesomely, fantastically free. Google is my favorite noun and verb. Oh, Google.
So what's up with the title? Well, Google has once again managed to make us proud. Google Labs is following certain oft-Googled topics like flu symptoms to piece together disease epidemics nationwide. Just for you and me. For free.
We have found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms
states the Google.org description of the flu-search-tracking system that the mass information giant hosts.
Teaming with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Google's records report trends of influenza virus searches performed as far back as 2003. Although the result may be predictable - flu peaks mid-December, etc. - it is said that the tool will allow the Epidemiology and Prevention Branch of the Influenza Division of the CDC (of the Mouthful of Titles Division nonetheless) to record geographical patterns in addition to time-related ones when it comes to flu research.
What's most surprising is that, generally, these stats have been right on the ball. This is despite the fact that many people Google the flu just for methods of prevention and for others' symptoms.
Google claims that it predicts flu trends two weeks earlier than regular flu trackers. It has the capability to do the same in regard to allergies and sunburns, although it's obvious that nature itself can set off those alarms.
And the best part is the fact that Google has a very stringent privacy policy as to not overstep its boundaries when it comes to research. So you shouldn't expect cookies popping to monitor every single query. Instead, an anonymous, geographical gathering of mainly mass searches is what Google says its approach is.
This example of using power for good is almost touching, considering the size of the company and the rarity of such research being done for the sake of the common man.
(It should not go unmentioned that Google works on countless other projects in addition to this, such as green energy and international public services, but let's stick to the subject.)
This research promotes the idea that perhaps not all Web records are intended to sell us products and services, but that some forms of Web data gathering can bring about helpful, unselfish things.
So what would happen if Google spanned out its research? Well, my guess is that it would probably stick to health-related queries. But I believe that search engine information could come in handy in predicting other health and social problems nationally. These could be drug use, psychological problems, addiction issues, financial problems, etc. It's almost hard to believe that information is so easy to access for these information giants. We look it up, and they write it down (per se).
The sad thing is, however, the fact that most of the data collected from Web site visitors generally seems to go toward marketing purposes. Cookies and Web stats collect our addresses, interests, searches, etc. only to target companies' ads more directly at us.
To have such great power and to use it only to remind us that Classmates.com has 117 users signed up from our high school, or to point out that there are at least 10 sexy singles in our town logged on right now, is straight out sad. Three cheers for someone up there, near the top of the e-food chain, doing something right.
Olga Kharitonova is a junior studying
journalism. Send her an e-mail
at ok137308@ohiou.edu.
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Opinion
Olga Kharitonova
