Your Google Searches Could Shape the Response to the Next Pandemic

Search data holds great potential for predicting the spread of a disease

Chris Baraniuk
OneZero
Published in
6 min readMay 19, 2020

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A man wearing a face mask types into his phone.
Photo: LEREXIS/Moment/Getty Images

Even if all you could see of humanity during the pandemic was our internet search data, you’d know something was wrong. Google searches for the word “prayer” have boomed to the highest level ever recorded in a sample of 95…

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Chris Baraniuk
OneZero

Freelance science and technology journalist. Based in Northern Ireland.