Fever? Headache? Sore Throat? You might find answers to all these symptoms through a new tool as simple as Google search. Google’s new public health initiative, a new tool that will help U.S. federal health experts track the annual flu epidemic, is designed to provide information about potential epidemics.

Flu Trends will be released through Google.org and it will use data from search-engine queries to estimate flu activity in certain areas faster than traditional systems currently in use.

“We’ve discovered that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity,” Google said in a statement. The project is based on the idea of a close connection between how many people enter flu-related search terms, such as “thermometer” and “cold remedies” and how many people are sick with the flu. Google used IP adresses to determine the location of the computers from which the search queries are submitted.

“What's exciting about Flu Trends is that it lets anybody -- epidemiologists, health officials, moms with sick children -- learn about the current flu activity level in their own state based on data that's coming in this week,” said Jeremy Ginsberg, the lead engineer who developed the site.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collaborated with Google on the project, helping refine the model, which has already provided flu tracking data over a five-year period. The test showed that Flu Trends managed to identify several outbreaks two weeks earlier than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracking bureaus.

In the 2007-2008 flu season, the system accurately estimated current flu levels one or two weeks faster than published CDC’s reports in each of the nine U.S. surveillance regions, Google said.

The system may also help doctors make diagnoses, Jeremy Ginsberg said. He says that early detection is key for health officials to react quickly. The company says it hopes that releasing its data will provide early warning of flu outbreaks. 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.

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 the tool can be used for other diseases, too.

Flu Trends cannot be used to identify individual users, Google said in a statement.

Annually, influenza kills about 36,000 Americans while 200,000 others are hospitalized. 20,000 of those hospitalized are people younger than 5 years old. Seniors present a high risk of complications from the flu. The majority of flu deaths occur in this category of age. The flu season lasts from December through March peaking in January and February. However, the CDC recommends getting a flu shot as early as October.

In addition to taking their flu vaccination, people are being encouraged to take everyday prevention steps: cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and throw the tissue after you use it, wash your hands often with soap and water, try to avoid closed contact with sick people when possible, stay home if you get the flu and limit contact with others to avoid infecting them.