Don’t wait until you’re sick to search for terms like "flu" and "flu shot" this winter.  By adding a few tips and a flu shot finder to its results page, Google’s taken special steps to help ensure that people who search for the words won’t get sick in the first place.

The tips, which you can read for yourself below, consist of simple, common-knowledge stuff.  Still, their prominent placement could help drill them into people’s heads, and the link to Flu.gov may also come in handy.

Then there’s the flu shot finder to consider.  By sticking it in the search results (and on Flu.gov and the American Lung Association site to boot), Google will no doubt remind lots of people to get vaccinated.

Google should be able to make the vaccination process less of a hassle, too, since it’s more or less eliminated the risk that whatever Walgreens or Rite Aid a person stops at won’t have the shots in stock.

Finally, Roni Zeiger, Chief Health Strategist at Google, announced one more important detail on the Official Google.org Blog: "This year’s flu vaccine protects against the three viruses that research suggests will be most common, including the H1N1 virus, so officials do not expect the need for multiple vaccines."

Good luck staying healthy this flu season.