Comments on: Facebook maps the swine flu hysteria

Facebook releases a set of images, displaying discussion of the swine flu outbreak across the site.

[ketsugi]

I'd like to see a worldwide map for the same. It'd be interesting to track how the hysteria spreads across borders.

[harrisonh1]

Agreed ketsugi. I'd love to see the same. Facebook said that they only did it for the U.S., Canada, and the UK because those are the only countries that they are currently tracking with Lexicon.

[travismcgough]

Correction: the map shows that 0.82% of Facebook users in Texas are referring to the swine flu, not 82%. There is a BIG difference.

[harrisonh1]

Thanks for the catch Travis. That's a horrible error. It's all fixed up now.

[iankennedy54]

Does this map also factor in percentage of people that are using Facebook? The numbers in Mississippi might also be low also because not as many people are using Facebook with a Mississippi address.

[harrisonh1]

Ian,

As I understand it, it shows the percentage of Facebook users from that particular state that have talked about swine flu.

We Canucks aren't concernd because we have universal healthcare. We'll have to sit in the waiting room for three weeks, but we won't have to pay for it, at least.

[Imajenn]

I dont undersrand why it says "Mississippi doesn't care about the swine flu"

It doesnt make sense, especially where its placed, it looks like a mistake

[harrisonh1]

Imajen: It's just a photo caption.

[Imajenn]

Something to consider ...
One reason why it may be low in Mississippi is because they had their Spring Break back in March when this wasnt an issue.

Many of the states with these problems have colleges/schools in them that were in Mexico for Spring Break, or they had a releative there and they brought it back with them.

[Imajenn]

People in Canada may not have to pay for healthcare, but they are highly taxed in other ways

[DigitalBenjamin]

Speaking of Maps. Check out this cool animated map that shows the spread of Swine Flu across the US.

http://www.swine-flu-map-animation.com/

[vitoque1]

Best dashboard (heatmap + timeline + breaking news) about swine map is probably the theairdb one:

http://theairdb.com/swine-flu/heatmap.html

I particularly like the possibility of importing both heatmap and timeline as iGoogle gadget