On March 13, President Donald Trump drummed up nationwide curiosity when he announced that Google -- unbeknownst to the search engine giant -- was developing a website to facilitate US coronavirus testing. Google threw together a website to live up to Trump's promise, and it turns out this off-the-cuff site is pretty fascinating.
The website provides much-needed official updates and authoritative facts in a world plagued with misinformation. This isn't particularly surprising because disseminating information and providing analysis is Google's wheelhouse.
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That said, the site doesn't live up to Trump's testing facility promise, although Google is doing what it does best: informing and analyzing.
Take a look at how interest for coronavirus surpassed Google's most popular top searches (i.e. weather and news).
Google also gives users insight into which states searched about the viral outbreak the most: Hawaii, New Jersey and Connecticut were the top three. Interestingly, Oklahoma had the fewest coronavirus-related searches.
Zoom out to the worldwide statistics and Uganda, Spain and New Zealand are the top three nations most interested in searching for coronavirus-related content.
Google also provides an eye-widening, oft-updated interactive world map that unveils the number of reported COVID-19 cases, which revealed that US coronavirus cases are creeping toward an unsettling 40,000.
To "flatten the curve" and impede the spread of the novel coronavirus, Google also provides information on preventative care, common COVID-19 symptoms, and easy-to-digest facts about how it spreads. You'll also find useful links to the CDC and WHO, as well as a drop-down menu with quick navigation to the Department of Health site for each state.
But the most interesting feature of Google's new coronavirus website is its section offering helpful work-from-home YouTube content, as well as videos demonstrating the best home workout exercises.
This is the tech giant acknowledging that many workers around the world are working from home, and many of us (or is it just me?) are going stir crazy as social distancing chips away at our connections with co-workers, friends and family.
Google is off to a great start as far as information and analytics are concerned; it's perfect for one's primary source of coronavirus-related facts. We look forward to seeing if Google will implement better, innovative resources to help our nation as its struggles to contain this virus.
