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# Big Data and the Myth of Perfection
- URL: https://www.philsimon.com/big-data-is-not-perfect/
- Published: 2013-02-14T15:37:43.000Z
- Updated: 2025-05-11T20:30:31.000Z
- Description: Think Big Data is perfect? Think again.
- Author: Phil Simon
- Tags: Big Data, Google, Too Big to Ignore

For better or worse, I can think of few companies that "do" Big Data better than Google.

![big-data](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8f/b5/8fb5e321-49a6-4cf5-8a28-c6f6d5417e54/content/images/2025/05/big-data-6.jpg)

Case in point: the company's oft-cited ability to predict the flu better than the CDC. Its interesting to note, though, that Google Flu recently failed to provide accurate estimates. From a [Nature.com article](https://www.nature.com/news/when-google-got-flu-wrong-1.12413?ref=philsimon.com):

When influenza hit early and hard in the United States this year, it quietly claimed an unacknowledged victim: one of the cutting-edge techniques being used to monitor the outbreak. A comparison with traditional surveillance data showed that Google Flu Trends, which estimates prevalence from flu-related Internet searches, had drastically overestimated peak flu levels. The glitch is no more than a temporary setback for a promising strategy, experts say, and Google is sure to refine its algorithms. But as flu-tracking techniques based on mining of web data and on social media proliferate, the episode is a reminder that they will complement, but not substitute for, traditional epidemiological surveillance networks. 

## Simon Says 

For those who think that Big Data knows all, we're not there yet–and we may never yet there. Big Data is a club in the bag; it is not omniscient. Knowing much should never be confused with knowing all.