Before anyone gets too panicky about swine flu, make sure you check with the experts. Not the CDC or your doctor; as everyone knows, Google is the real expert on everything, including flu. And according to the Google Flu Trends site, the risk of flu is low – nearly minimal. “Current estimates of flu activity are still generally low across the United States, as is expected given the confirmed swine flu case count,” say Google.

And how did Google get to be such an expert on flu – and other – trends? By working with great developers right here in Israel! Google has two development centers in Israel – in Tel Aviv and Haifa – which shows how much Google values Israeli development (there are only a couple of countries around the world – MUCH bigger than Israel! – that have more than one development center).

Flu Trends is a demonstration of the overall Google Trends technology. According to the Trends blog,

Our team found that certain aggregated search queries tend to be very common during flu season each year. We compared these aggregated queries against data provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and we found that there’s a very close relationship between the frequency of these search queries and the number of people who are experiencing flu-like symptoms each week. As a result, if we tally each day’s flu-related search queries, we can estimate how many people have a flu-like illness.

But it turns out that Google has been not only using made in Israel tech – its whole identity could be considered to have been created here, according to this article in Haaretz. Artist Ruth Kedar designed the famous Google logo ten years ago while she was at Stanford in California. According to Kedar, the logo’s simple look is deceptive, hiding its complex layers. Quoting her, the article says:

Someone who sees the logo for the first time doesn’t necessarily need to absorb all the layers and considerations behind every decision – it’s better for him to discover something new every time. It somewhat amuses me to turn on the computer and look at the logo I designed. But it also fills me with pride. When you say Google to people today, they immediately see the colorful logo.”

Why read a flat map, when you can luxuriate in a 3D GPS-style rendering of exactly where you are on the highway – for FREE! Israeli company 3DVU (I interviewed the CEO, Isaac Levanon, a couple of years ago) has a new product called Way2Go,

“the first and only personalized Web-to-Mobile route planner giving real-time turn-by-turn, GPS tracking, voice and text guidance navigation for PC and mobile phones with full 3D aerial photography and real terrain elevation of entire countries.  Way2Go is based on patented technology, enabling users to plan, review, share and navigate their routes in a full 3D virtual world with smooth zooming and perspective angle maneuverability. Way2Go one-ups mapping solutions like MapQuest, Google Map and Yahoo Maps.”

Don’t take their word for it – download a free route map when you sign up. The Way2Go service, which provides you with up to 15 route maps a month, usually costs $4.99 a month, but they are giving away a sample route for FREE! You register, download the appropriate viewer – Windows, Symbian, Blackberry, or Windows Mobile – and build yourself a route map for any to-from route in the US, UK, Germany, and some other European countries.

If you don’t want to subscribe to a GPS service, Way2Go is a great alternative, because there are no online charges – you download the route directly to your device, in advance of your trip – and the Way2Go maps are way better than anything Google or Yahoo has. 3DVU has its own rendering engine (used in its other products as well). If nothing else, a 3D map will keep you more alert on the road, making it safer for you to drive. I downloaded a map with a route from my parents’ house on the Jersey Shore to NYC – the Garden State Parkway never looked so good!