14 DAY TRIAL // Swine flu is the hot trendy infectious disease right now and everyone wants a piece of it. Not literally obviously, but seeing that even Google got on the swine flu bandwagon, it's hard to blame all of the over-the-top headlines news outlets have been sporting for a couple of months. Still, it could all be in good faith. So, perhaps out of real concern and a desire to inform the masses, Google has now launched a “flu shot finder,” a website powered by Google Maps, designed to allow people to find locations, in the US, where they can get flu shots for both regular flu and the dreaded H1N1.
“You can check out the flu shot finder at www.google.com/flushot. The same tool will also be available shortly on www.flu.gov and the American Lung Association websites. It's important to note that this project is just beginning and we have not yet received information about flu shot clinics for many locations. In addition, many locations that are shown are currently out of stock,” Google's Roni Zeiger, M.D., product manager and Jennifer Haroon, product marketing manager, wrote.
The tool is easy enough to use, it's just Google Maps with a custom search sidebar. You enter your location and Google populates the map with little icons indicating places where the shots are available. Unfortunately, for most places the data is rather lacking, even in Google's back yard in Mountain View, California. Google says it launched the tool early to get people and institutions aware of it. It hopes that this way more info will start pouring in and the data will be more complete and up to date.
Google also offers an interesting site over at Google Flu Trends, which is designed to keep track of flu outbursts and statistics in some 20 countries around the world. The data can be a little behind sometimes as Google depends on the local institutions for it, but it could prove to be a useful tool of keeping track of the progress in your community or on the global level.