The coronavirus 'COVID-19' is still spreading, and people are eager to look for information regarding the virus, more than ever.
To prevent misinformation and people in getting information from where they may get misled, Google has launched a site, available at https://www.google.com/covid19/, with information and resources to help people better understand the coronavirus outbreak.
The site is initially available for people in the U.S..
With information that include data about the disease, links to health advisory material from the World Health Organization (WHO), the site also includes information about public health departments for each U.S. state, safety tips, data on the spread of coronavirus around the world, ideas for living well and working at home, and a donation drive to support the UN Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
Google is also curating information to display in the search results about the disease, as well as links to Twitter accounts of local organizations and health authorities.
According to Google in its blog post:
"As this public health crisis has evolved into a pandemic, information needs are continuing to change, differing from region to region."
"Now, as we continue to see people’s information needs expanding, we’re introducing a more comprehensive experience for COVID-19 in Search, providing easy access to authoritative information from health authorities alongside new data and visualizations. This new format organizes the search results page to help people easily navigate information and resources, and it will also make it possible to add more information over time as it becomes available."
Google has also added modules with statistics and a map showing COVID-19 prevalence in countries around the world.
Initially, the site is only available in English, but a Google spokesperson confirmed that the company is working on a Spanish language support for the site soon to follow.
"Launching today in the U.S., the site will be available in more languages and countries in the coming days and we’ll update the website as more resources become available. Along with our other products and initiatives, we hope these resources will help people find answers to the questions they’re asking and get the help they need," said Google.
Previously, the U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Google was building a website to help people in the U.S. find testing locations.
However, the company was actually Verily, an Alphabet subsidiary, that built the site. In the meantime, the site only serves people residing in a couple of counties in California.
With the coronavirus a pandemic having spread massively around the world, a lot of tech companies are making efforts to provide coronavirus-related support.
Similarly, Microsoft has created a page in Bing that shows an interactive map about this COVID-19 spread and related news about the pandemic for each and every country affected by the disease.