At a time when the world is dealing with a pandemic, a lot of people are entering into a panic mode and gathering any kind of information on the novel coronavirus without checking the authenticity of the content. To tackle this issue, Google recently announced that it would build a website on coronavirus. The website would be dedicated to education and prevention related to COVID-19 and would contain links to information from trust-worthy authorities like World Health Organization (WHO) and Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
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The first version of the website was supposed to roll out on March 16, but apparently that has been delayed. Elsewhere, Google products like Search, YouTube and Maps are also helping customers find useful and timely information about COVID-19.
For instance, when someone searches for coronavirus on Google Search, the results show an SOS alert and the results page includes links to the sites of national health authorities and also displays a map of affected areas, taken from WHO.
Currently, Google is promoting its “Do the Five” campaign, which aims to raise awareness about the simple measures that people can take to avoid contracting the coronavirus infection. These measures are in accordance with the WHO guidelines.
According to the Do the Five campaign, these are the five measures that a person should take for prevention against the novel coronavirus:
- Wash hands often
- Cough into the elbow
- Don’t touch your face
- Maintain a distance of at least 3 feet (or 1 metre)
- Stay home if you feel sick
On YouTube, Google is using the homepage to redirect users to videos on coronavirus posted by the CDC or a local public health agency. In India, if a user types coronavirus into the YouTube search, in the results page, the top most link redirects the user to the coronavirus page of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This is a part of Google’s initiative to highlight the content from authorities when people search for COVID-19, so that people first have access to authentic information, rather than any fake news or misinformation.
