I received a very thought provoking comment on my Avian Flu post from Declan Butler @ Nature. Declan suggested that I try charting “H5N1″ the technical name for the feared virus to gauge difference in academic/professional interest in the avian flu v. consumer interest.
I’ve updated my previous chart with the term “H5N1″

The interesting point of the chart above is that the technical term “H5N1″ and “Avian Flu” spike first in late September, followed by the massive consumer spike in searches on “Bird Flu”
Further to one of Declan’s suggestions, I’ve created the same charts for some of our other markets (United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore) see links below.
United Kingdom
Australia
Singapore
Finally, Declan threw me a curve (pun intended) regarding a possible Zipf Power Law explanation on differences in news versus informational sites downstream from Avian and Bird Flu searches. I need a while to work through that one. More to come…