Hacker News Reader

Looks scary, but are trending search terms still reliable when those terms are all over the news?

Indeed.

I'd imagine searches for 'kidnapping' spike every time a pretty young white woman goes missing too.

For more up to date information and projections: www.gleamviz.org (pardon the shameless self promotion)

The other 3 country graphs show business as usual. I'd say it's mostly because everyone in the US is freaking out.

Google Flu Trends - US Flu Activity High