Google, through its philanthropic arm, Google.org, is trying to help U.S. authorities fight the flu by introducing a new tool Tuesday that can spot potential epidemics in near real-time. The product is called Flu Trends and it tracks the number of searches by Google’s users for flu-related terms like “thermometer” or “cold remedies”.

A surge in the number of such searches might indicate a flu outbreak in a particular state as people try to find information about their illness. Google took this decision because, last year, a test showed that Google’s tool highlighted flu outbreaks about two weeks faster than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracking, which relies on reports from local hospitals and state health departments. By finding out about the flu two weeks before it outbreaks, the authorities can ensure there are enough vaccines on hand in a particular area and they can warn residents to get their flu shots.

According to some data, flu manages to kill up to half a million people worldwide annually, even if many people who catch the illness recover without much trouble. To check the accuracy of Flu Trends, Google compared five years of its previous flu-related search data with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. This revealed that the tracking from both sources coincided, but both parties said that more testing is needed. To solve complaints from privacy groups, Google doesn’t make personally identifiable information available in Flu Trends. The company already created a product, Trends, that shows the popularity of specific search terms over time, information that is used by marketers. Flu Trends offers graphs about the rise and fall of flu-related search queries, and users can view activities in all 50 states or the entire country. Flu is the only disease Google tracks for now, but that may change in time.