Google Inc. announced the release of a new tool, which will provide information about potential epidemics. The new service, called Flu Trends, will be released through Google.org and the data on possible flu spread is expected to help the US authorities is better dealing with these situations.

The mechanism is simple, as it counts the searches recorded by Google for flu-related terms such as "thermometer" and "cold remedies," and if a certain area lists a significant amount of such searches it could mean that there is the potential of an outbreak, as many people located there are searching for details about their conditions and symptoms.

A test conducted last year showed that Flu Trends managed to identify several outbreaks two weeks earlier than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's tracking bureaus, which use information from reports received from state health departments and local hospitals.

"The sooner we have indication that flu is in a community, the earlier public health officials can take action," explained Glen Nowak, a CDC spokesman. The reason why this is so important is because each day is important when it comes to these situations, as the authorities can use the extra time to ensure that there are sufficient supplies to vaccinate everyone interested and also to address the population and explain the dangers that they will soon be exposed to.

Lyn Finelli, lead for surveillance at the influenza division of the CDC, explained that this could help prevent the cases of influenza. Finelli also added that the percentage of the nation’s population contracting flu each year is between 5 and 20, leading to more than 35,000 deaths. So any sort of effort in bringing these numbers down should be appreciated and welcomed by the authorities and also by the general population.

Google compared the results of its new service with CDC’s reports for the past five years and the conclusions reached by both parts seem to coincide. Still, the two agreed that more tests are needed in order to make sure that the data is accurate and dependable. There are many public health officials not all that excited about the service, as they believe that their previous methods of gathering data are the best ones available for now. "We don't have any evidence that this is more timely than our emergency room data," said Farzad Mostashari, assistant commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The new service is based on another one of Google’s features called Trends, which provides details about the popularity of certain things such as movies, artists or other products, using the number of searches as a measuring tool. A similar service is also provided by Yahoo.