Google tracks the flu in Texas

AUSTIN - Flu season seems to be on its way to Central Texas, according to many experts.

"Clinically wide, we've seen 50 cases just in the last two weeks, but we're just kind of gearing up," said Dr. Hillary Miller with Austin Regional Clinic .

Many people are looking up their flu symptoms on search engines like Google . Internet searches that now provide a new way of tracking illnesses. Google Flu Trends uses the close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. It is a way of tracking flu activity up to two weeks ahead of traditional flu surveillance systems. Texas is now in the moderate category showing increased flu activity.

It is a trend backed up with data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

"We rely on the CDC and the TDH to give us our info," said Dr. Miller. "We've been at sporadic and we've turned into regional which means it's coming."

The CDC uses a network of doctors keeping track of how many of their patients have the flu. It is usually a good overall indicator of flu activity nationwide, but it can take up to two weeks to collect and release the data. Google's data is easy to compute so Google can make their flu estimates available each day. Google Flu Trends is still experimental but some say it could be an early warning system for the flu.

"I think people looking up symptoms probably because they have the symptoms of the flu," said Dr. Miller. "And, I think it's great to use tools, online tools to figure out if you're at risk."