Google Tracks Swine Flu

Wondering where the Swine Flu has broken out while stockpiling industrial respiratory filters? Of course you are. That's why Google (GOOG) is mapping both outbreaks of Swine Flu worldwide and flu infection rates in the United States. Click here, and you'll see all the confirmed, suspect, and lethal cases reported so far. In California, Google is tracking numerous suspected cases in San Diego and Imperial counties, while Texas and Kansas report several confirmed outbreaks. Google is also following Swine Flu incidents in New York City, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Indiana, and Ohio. Around the world, Google is tracking events in France, Australia, Scotland, Israel, New Zealand, and Columbia. Click here, and you'll see Google's larger picture for flu outbreaks over time. This year, for example, saw only a moderate flu season that peaked and dwindled away in late February and early March.

Meanwhile, how are Facebook, Twitter, and all the other fancy new social networking sites handling the potential pandemic? According to Open Society Institute fellow Evgeny Morosov, not so well. Writing in the journal Foreign Policy, Morosov argues that Twitter's rumor mill could help spread "an unnecessary global panic about Swine Flu." Morosov lists a few of the less-helpful tweets he's read. "Could it be germ warfare?" "In the pandemic Spanish Flu of 1918-19, my Grandfather said bodies were piled up like wood in our local town." "How long before the Swine Flu hysteria crashes the pork market? 2 hours? 3?"

The flu outbreak, Morosov argues, could be a perfect illustration of how the "wisdom of crowds" has some very substantial limitations. "If my reading list on Twitter was only restricted to the individuals who had produced the posts above, by now I would be extremely scared and probably feeling a great urge to post a scary Twitter update myself," he writes. "In moments like this, one is tempted to lament the death of broadcasting, for it seems that the information from expert sources—government, doctors, and the like—should probably be prioritized over everything else and have a higher chance of being seen that the information from the rest of one's Twitter-feed, full of speculation, misinformation, and gossip."

On the other hand, if Morosov's so smart, how come he couldn't have put that in 140 characters or less?