Google Retools Its Flu Prediction Engine — After Getting It Wrong
Google Retools Its Flu Prediction Engine — After Getting It Wrong
It’s flu season and Google has some news. The search giant is updating Flu Trends, its formula for making weekly predictions of the number of flu cases.
The company’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, announced in a blog post Friday that it has revised the algorithm that tracks US flu cases. Until recently, Google Flu Trends was the poster child for the promise of big data as a tool for social good.
Companies from Nielsen to large telcos are offering up their customer data to experts who can mine it for clues about public health and social unrest.
The Flu Trends algorithm uses data derived from Google search terms to predict flu outbreaks in 29 countries.
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