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November 12, 2008, 11:02 AM ET
New Google Services Could Burden Networks, Benefit Scholars
Yesterday Google unveiled three new services — two that may make campus-network administrators groan and one that could prove to be a boon to researchers in a number of disciplines.
The search giant’s voice- and video-chat offerings could encourage more campus-network users to switch from low-bandwidth communication technologies — instant messaging, e-mail, social networks — to chat applications that consume considerably more network resources. Voice and video chatting have been available for some time, of course, through Skype, Apple’s iChat, and other applications. But Google’s search and e-mail functions are widely used, and the software is easy to install and use, so more people may be drawn in.
That’s the bad news, at least as far as overtaxed campus networks are concerned. The good news is a new flu-tracking service called Google Flu Trends, which the company says “may provide an early-warning system for outbreaks of influenza.” The tracking service compiles a daily tally of flu-related search queries, which comparisons have shown to correlate closely with actual flu trends reported by the federal government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The big advantage of the Google offering is that the information is available almost instantly, while the CDC’s reporting system lags a week or two behind the sore throats and stuffy noses.
The search company has offered a tool called Google Trends for some time now, and some researchers have used it to track other trends. But the flu-tracking service would seem to offer proof that measuring search activity can be an important, real-time tool for scholars. Are you using it? What for? Do you see possibilities for trend searches with potential benefits that could match those of Google Flu Trends?
Incidentally, today’s “Hot Trends” — searches that are experiencing sudden spikes in popularity — include “ACT scores” and “Lebanon Valley,” the latter apparently because of an increase in searches related to Lebanon Valley College. —Lawrence Biemiller
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