Google has launched an online tool that's capable of tracking the spread of influenza across the country, The Australian reports.
Google Flu Trends works by analysing patterns in online search queries and cross-referencing them with official data to determine the geographic location of influenza outbreaks.
It's claimed the system, which was launched in the US last year, works much faster that traditional data collection agencies which can take days or weeks to analyse data.
All this boasting might have you wondering if Google managed to identify the 2009 version of swine flu before it's spread across the globe.
Unfortunately Google Flu Trends missed the warning signs about the disease as the tool was launched in Mexico just before swine flu broke out in that country.
Retrospective analysis by Google found an increase in flu related searches prior to widespread reporting of the illness in the news media, Wired reports.
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