Search giant, Google sets its mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful to everyone. As the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 is declared as a pandemic, Google renewed its commitment to providing timely and helpful information to people around the globe.

SOS Alert on Search

Many countries around the world, including the Philippines, are now seeing SOS Alert on Search as Google helps users find the latest developments surrounding the virus from authoritative sources. With SOS Alert, people will see a top story carousel, links to helpful information, and safety tips from authoritative sources.

Information Panel on YouTube

This YouTube feature aims to direct users to the World Health Organization (WHO) or other locally relevant authoritative organizations. This also appears underneath some of the videos a user is watching about the coronavirus.

Protecting People from Misinformation

  • On YouTube, any content that claims to prevent the coronavirus in place of seeking medical treatment is being removed. 
  • On Google Ads, the company is blocking all ads capitalizing on the coronavirus, and Google has blocked tens of thousands of ads over the last six weeks. The company is also helping WHO and government organizations run PSA ads. 
  • Google Play also prohibits developers from capitalizing on sensitive events, and its long-standing content policies strictly prohibit apps that feature medical or health-related content or functionalities that are misleading or potentially harmful.
  • Google’s policy whitepaper, How Google Fights Disinformation, provides further background on how information quality is upheld across platforms.  

Productivity for Remote Workers & Students

As more employees, educators, and students work remotely in response to coronavirus, Google Cloud is helping them stay connected and productive. Google has rolled out free access to our advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities to all G Suite and G Suite for Education customers globally. This includes the Philippines’ Department of Education. You can learn more about this through these links: G Suite Updates, and Helping businesses and schools stay connected in response to Coronavirus

Advancing Health Research & Science

DeepMind has released structure predictions of several proteins associated with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus. These structure predictions have not yet been experimentally verified, but the hope is that by accelerating their release they may contribute to the scientific community’s understanding of how the virus functions and experimental work in developing future treatments.

Supporting Relief Efforts & Government Organizations

Google is providing $25 million in donated ad credit to the WHO and government agencies and will provide more if there is a need throughout the year. Google.org and Googlers have donated over US$1 million to support relief efforts, which will go towards organizations working to purchase medical supplies, provide frontline workers with food and lodging, support the construction of temporary hospitals, and help with long-term recovery efforts.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert “Bob” Reyes is a technologist, an ICT Consultant and Tech Speaker, a certified Google IT Support Specialist, and an Open Source advocate representing the global non-profit Mozilla (makers of Firefox) in the Philippines. Bob is a Technology Columnist for the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation and an aviation subject matter expert contributor for Spot.PH.

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