Google says it is working with the US government to develop a nationwide COVID-19 website on symptoms, risks, and testing info, in addition to other measures
but Not Like Trump Said New York Times : Trump Oversold a Google Site to Fight Coronavirus Sean Collins / Vox : Despite his experts' grave warnings, Trump wants everyone to just “relax” Jon Fingas / Engadget : Google says nationwide coronavirus website is in development (updated) Charlie Osborne / ZDNet : Alphabet website for novel coronavirus screening and testing is now live Richard Nieva / CNET : Google sibling's coronavirus testing website makes limited launch Todd Spangler / Variety : Google-Affiliated Coronavirus Test Website Touted by Trump Goes Live in 2 California Counties … Jon Porter / The Verge : Microsoft Bing launches interactive COVID-19 map to provide pandemic news Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch : Trump says Google CEO Sundar Pichai called to apologize Charlesarthur / The Overspill : Start Up No.1265: Twitter's stalled cleanup, get bouncing!, the other benefits of trees to cities … Jeff Bercovici / Los Angeles Times : Google website can help you get tested for coronavirus — so long as you aren't sick Matt Milano / WebProNews : Coronavirus: Google Scrambling to Catch Up to Trump's Announcement Firstpost Tech : Microsoft launches COVID-19 tracking website that shows the number of people affected worldwide Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE : Alphabet Inc.'s Verily life sciences unit launches pilot coronavirus testing website David Choi / Business Insider : Trump flicked a Google statement onto the floor during a live press conference in an apparent rebuke … Brian Fagioli / BetaNews : Microsoft launches Bing Coronavirus (COVID-19) Tracker Alyse Stanley / Gizmodo : Google Scrambles to Make the White House Seem Competent CNN : Google will partner with US government to develop a nationwide coronavirus website, company says Matt Southern / Search Engine Journal : Google Confirms It Is Now Building a Nationwide Coronavirus Info Site Jon Fingas / Yahoo Finance : Google says nationwide coronavirus website is in development Tina Nguyen / Politico : Trump finds his MAGA movement fracturing over coronavirus Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch : White House now says pilot of coronavirus screening site will roll out Monday for Bay Area Brandy Betz / Seeking Alpha : Google working on national coronavirus website Abner Li / 9to5Google : Google developing ‘nationwide’ coronavirus information website with US government Tweets: @google_comms : “We are fully aligned and continue to work with the US Government to contain the spread of COVID-19, inform citizens, and protect the health of our communities. (1/6) https://twitter.com/... @google_comms : “Google is partnering with the US Government in developing a nationwide website that includes information about COVID-19 symptoms, risk and testing information. (2/6) @rmac18 : Google's online Coronavirus screening tool seems to be working incorrectly. The process only triggers the screening process once you've answered “no” to having symptoms. https://www.projectbaseline.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... Nicholas Thompson / @nxthompson : Trump's BS about the Google website may oddly have done some good. It seems to have forced the company to try to match the thing the President spun up. https://www.wired.com/... Dave Lee / @daveleeft : I fear there's a problem with the test. If you say “NO” to having any symptoms of Covid-19, it takes you through the process of seeing you can get tested. Say “YES” to symptoms, tells you not to bother. (!!!) Contrast what I got by saying no vs what Dai got saying yes. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... David Pepper / @davidpepper : This is basically a Sharpie incident: 1. Get basic facts wrong 2. Clean it up by lying https://twitter.com/... Jeff Dean / @jeffdean : An update from @sundarpichai on efforts going on at @Google to help with the COVID-19 situation (product changes to get people more timely info, basic science and research, funding support for external entities, adapting to virtual wfh for many, ...) https://blog.google/... Yamiche Alcindor / @yamiche : President Trump just said reporters were reporting “fake news” about Google and the state of their developments. Below is proof that Google says they are in early stages of development which contradicts President Trump's claims. https://twitter.com/... Peter Baker / @peterbakernyt : Trump declared that Google would have a coronavirus test screening web site done “very quickly,” but Verily, a subsidiary of Google's parent company, says it is still “in the early stages of development.” @shearm @daiwaka https://www.nytimes.com/... Edmund Lee / @edmundlee : Interesting. After many reporters asked Google what the president was talking about and getting a very narrow response — it's just a pilot for the Bay Area — the company a day later offers a lengthier statement that seems to parrot what Trump said. What changed? https://twitter.com/... David Gura / @davidgura : My apology? In the middle of the president's news conference on Friday, I wrote Google PR an email (left). A few hours later, I got a reply from Verily, not Google (right). https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Ted Lieu / @tedlieu : Dear @realDonaldTrump: The next few months are going to be very difficult. We all have to work together. It is not helpful for you to keep misleading the American people. Google is not, and never was, building a nationwide test screening website. That's what their statement says. https://twitter.com/... Matthew Miller / @matthewamiller : Again, how does this happen? Not just Trump, but Pence and Birx, who even brought a sign about it. Rank amateur hour combined with institutionalized deception. https://www.wired.com/... Bill Kristol / @billkristol : “Officials in California were stunned to see the White House present their graphic for a modest pilot program that California's been developing with Alphabet as if it were a Trump administration program that was a nationwide initiative and ready to go...” https://www.cnn.com/... @bgr : Google says it's building Trump's coronavirus website it didn't know it was building https://bgr.com/... https://twitter.com/... Judy Trinh / @judyatrinh : I don't understand this. Shouldn't CDC be responsible for providing this information? Are privacy protections in place? In Canada we have info about numbers of cases / and screening coming from health authorities. https://twitter.com/... @chillmage : Google needs to very clearly state whether the information being spread by the White House is true or false. The company is aiding government misinformation by not addressing this more directly. Say whether Trump / Pence are correct or incorrect instead of this indirect comment https://twitter.com/... Daisuke Wakabayashi / @daiwaka : How did a Bay Area pilot project to find COVID-19 testing locations get sold as the nationwide Google testing website central to President Trump's efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus ? Story w @shearm https://www.nytimes.com/... Hamza Shaban / @hshaban : Google, after distancing itself from Trump's inaccurate comments about a coronavirus website, now says it is “fully aligned” with the US government. Google, a day later, says that it is building a website with info about coronavirus. Feels like a surreal, haphazard retcon: https://twitter.com/... Trumpster / @gettingtrump : it will go to SF first and have its shakedown where it will then be offered across the country. https://twitter.com/... @nbc12 : Though Google intially said it would not be publishing a national coronavirus website after claims made by President Donald Trump, the company has now announced a partnership with the government to launch just such a website. https://www.nbc12.com/... Fed Porn / @fedporn : The Art of the Deal https://twitter.com/... @dhh : This is certainly one way to get companies involved. Just announce that they already are, then rely on the fact that refuting the president might have dire consequences, and voila, 1700 Google Gnomes spring forth from the magic forest to implement a flowchart. https://twitter.com/... Daisuke Wakabayashi / @daiwaka : Verily said it would like to roll out the pilot website by Monday “at the latest.” Yet when I asked for some information about the site, the spokesperson said it features “a series of questions” and that there are no other details to share at this time. It's Friday. Sriram Krishnan / @sriramk : Without knowing any inside info, this Verily/Google/Trump situations sounds very much like a typical launch comms mix-up any PM here has probably seen. Very common launch approach to do scaled rollout. Also not typically understood if you're not in tech. Frank Luntz / @frankluntz : Also, the “1,700 engineers working on this right now” are actually just the pool of developers from which Google hopes to pull volunteers to work on the #coronavirus website. 👉🏻 https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... Austin Johnsen / @austinj : Lol, VP just said it'll launch nationwide on Monday. Someone tell Verily https://twitter.com/... Darren Rovell / @darrenrovell : 3:42 p.m. ET on Friday: Trump says Google is developing a nationwide website that will be “very quickly done” to help qualify Americans for drive-thru tests. Google, 94 minutes later: We aren't close to having this ready and it's not guaranteed to be nationwide. https://twitter.com/... Daisuke Wakabayashi / @daiwaka : So, to clarify a few things from President Trump's remaks. The bulk of the website will be done by Verily not Google (alhough Google staff have volunteered and I don't blame the president for failing to grasp Alphabet's “other bets” structure. 1/x Kris / @krishansonrcf : This is priceless. It's even funnier now looking back on Trump taking a jab at the Obamacare site in his press conference. https://twitter.com/... Matthew Panzarino / @panzer : So. - Verily building the site, not Google (they are both Alphabet companies) - The site is not ready and will not be ready ‘on Sunday’ or soon. - The scope of the site is currently planned to be ‘the Bay Area’ at launch, not ‘America’ Matthew Panzarino / @panzer : This was the little box at the top of the chart that everything else in the testing flow depends on. So what happens to the rest of that process to direct people to testing facilities now?
Context & Ripple Effects
This announcement lands amid a public dispute over what Google is actually building: President Trump claimed a nationwide screening site already existed and that 1,700 engineers were on the project, while Google confirmed only that its sibling Verily was building a triage tool starting in the Bay Area. The Reuters report is Google's attempt to state scope precisely — an information site on symptoms, risks, and testing developed with the US government, not the mass-screening portal described from the podium.
It matters because it makes Search the distribution layer for official pandemic guidance. Within weeks Google shipped a dedicated COVID-19 website with locally relevant results, then expanded to surfacing testing-center information across 43 states — the arc this announcement opens.
First-order effects
- Google and Verily are immediately tasked with building public-facing tools under White House scrutiny, with Verily's Bay Area triage pilot serving as the template while the nationwide information site is scoped with federal agencies.
- The White House gets a correction on the record: Google publicly disputes the claim of an existing nationwide screening site, forcing the administration's messaging onto what is actually being built.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft moves to occupy the same ground, launching the Bing Coronavirus Tracker as an interactive map — turning pandemic information into a visible competition between search rivals.
- Health authorities such as the CDC gain a new dependency on private search infrastructure for reach, since Google's results pages become a primary channel for testing-location guidance.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, crisis-response information shifts from government-run portals to platform-distributed guidance, making search companies de facto public-health infrastructure and raising questions about oversight when political claims and product reality diverge.
The trend: Pandemic-era emergency response is pulling major search platforms into direct partnership with governments, with their results pages becoming the primary delivery mechanism for official health information.