Over on True/Slant, Michael Roston opines:

Read it and weep, Internet-using America. The fifth most common search on Google earlier this morning, via Google Trends, was ’swine flue.’ Not ‘flu’ as in influenza, but ‘flue’

Hmmm. I guess he doesn’t understand the difference between Google Hot Trends and Google’s most popular searches overall. From their FAQ:

 Hot Trends reflects what people are searching for on Google today. Rather than showing the most popular searches overall, which would always be generic terms like ‘weather,’ Hot Trends highlights searches that experience sudden surges in popularity, and updates that information hourly.

For the actual comparison of flu to flue, look here: http://www.google.com/trends?q=swine+flu%2C+swine+flue&ctab=0

It’s about 1.00 to 0 with flu in the lead.