My friend Gerry Campbell has a good post up about tracking topical data on the real time web. Collecta, a spanking new real time search engine, allows a prospective search that you get delivered in a real time feed--allowing you, as Gerry says "to aggregate the stories, blogs, photos and comments while they're happening. I can get the whole picture right now. Then it's up to me to sort out bias. To distill facts. To come to an enlightened opinion on the topic. This can take just a few minutes - the information is flowing right in front of me."

Swine flu here.
Fun.