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Google made the following statement on Twitter; Google is partnering with the US Government in developing a nationwide website that includes information about

by zaroth 7y ago

Google made the following statement on Twitter; Google is partnering with the US Government in developing a nationwide website that includes information about COVID-19 symptoms, risk and testing information. This is _in addition_ (emphasis added) to other measures we are taking, including: - A Google “home page promotion” to promote greater awareness of simple measures citizens can take to prevent the spread of the disease; - Work being done by our sister company Verily to launch a pilot website that will enable individuals to do a risk assessment and be scheduled for testing at sites in the Bay Area; - Promoting authoritative information through Google Search and YouTube; - Taking measures to protect users from misinformation, including phishing, conspiracy theories, malware and misinformation; - Rolling out free access to our advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities to all G Suite and G Suite for Education customers globally until 7/01/20; - Advancing health research and science; and financially supporting global relief efforts.” So one of two things happened. Either the media largely got the story wrong, claiming that Google was not actually working on nationwide website like Trump described, perhaps the media was confused by the multiple efforts underway at Google and misreported the Verily work the only thing that was going on. Alternatively, after Google sent out their internal memo asking for volunteers and got 1,700 replies (the 1,700 engineers that Trump mentioned) they still weren’t actually planning to build a nationwide site, but after Trump announced it on national news and praised Google for their work, he effectively forced them to volunteer to do the work. This seems less likely to me. However there is just a tremendous amount of arguing and misinformation in this thread claiming that Google is only doing the Verily thing, when in fact Google has come out and declared that they are in fact working on a nationwide site, at Google, in addition to the Verily work. https://mobile.twitter.com/Google_Comms/status/1238989460127338497 https://mobile.twitter.com/Google_Comms/status/1238989460127...

axaxs 7y ago
I'm betting on the former. As dangerous as it is to basically blanket call the media liars as Trump has done, there are just enough cases of it being correct to keep you scratching your head. Journalism of today is little more than Gawker-esque trash. I feel sorry for the remaining good journalists, having their industry muddied so much.
- Reedx 7y ago
  Exhibit A: Downplaying the concern and shaming the tech industry. This was 1 month ago: https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/13/21128209/coronavirus-fears-contagion-how-infection-spreads https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/13/21128209/coronavirus-fe... In general the media was strangely quiet about it until very recently.
- KirinDave 7y ago
  Manufacturing Consent is a good book and I believe most of what's in it, but you should read the parts about the mechanics of it as opposed to assuming there is any unity or conformity in the production of News. It'd also a bit rich to be cursing at "the Media" for lying as the Executive and his most friendly media outlets just got done trying to play off the global pandemic as a liberal conspiracy nat CPAC.
BryantD 7y ago
Probably the latter. If the nationwide effort had already been underway when the President made that claim, Google Comms would have no reason to hide that fact. Instead, they initially pointed the media at Verily and only yesterday announced a larger effort. When you say the media was confused by multiple efforts, you’re sort of hand waving away the fact that the same account you linked pointed the world at Verily right after the President’s speech.
KirinDave 7y ago
I mean, I thought the media was right and I work at Google. I knew the Verily site existed (a member of my team helped with a production readiness review last week). So if they went and looked for Googlers who knew about the national effort and came up bank, and then didn't get immediate confirmation from Google, then they ran with a story. Obviously I am but a small part of this massive machine and even though I am in a lot of the COVID-19 chats and have been engaged with various technical readiness efforts since we'll before US took it seriously, so maybe I missed it. But also, I wouldn't be surprised if the Executive has just recently enlisted Google to do this. The "1700 engineers" number is super weird. That's much too high to be any one reasonably sized team, but it's definitely smaller than the impact footprint I infer at Google. So my prediction is Trump said nonsense but the Executive decided to try and make it reality afterwards. Google as a company would definitely jump on doing this sort of thing for free.
- paulie_a 7y ago
  The 1700 number is just replies then mistated in the speech. That wouldn't be the actual size of the team I bet.
  - KirinDave 7y ago
    Source?
    - paulie_a 7y ago
      The article which has the word replies in it regarding the number of volunteers.
- zaroth 7y ago
  I wouldn’t totally put it past Trump to announce it therefore forcing Google’s hand. But it also seems reasonable that someone in the Admin has a conversation with someone high up at Google and most of Google wasn’t aware of it immediately. It clearly wasn’t straight up invented out of thin air, because the 1,700 number correlates. Someone gave him that number after talking with Google. Either way... IMO, booting it into Google’s court (whether they truly volunteered or not, maybe we’ll never know) is a way more effective way to get the site done quickly than trying to get it done inside the government. I guess we’ll see what they stand up in the next week. Personally I really like the idea of “Corporate America” pulling out all the stops in every way that they can to provide COVID support. Whether it’s credit cards waiving payments and interest, tech companies donating software/services, retail stores volunteering space and workers to support outreach and testing efforts. I’d love to see a massive mobilization of the commercial sector truly bringing everything they have to bear on this challenge.

by zaroth 7y ago

axaxs 7y ago

I'm betting on the former. As dangerous as it is to basically blanket call the media liars as Trump has done, there are just enough cases of it being correct to keep you scratching your head. Journalism of today is little more than Gawker-esque trash. I feel sorry for the remaining good journalists, having their industry muddied so much.

Reedx 7y ago
Exhibit A: Downplaying the concern and shaming the tech industry. This was 1 month ago: https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/13/21128209/coronavirus-fears-contagion-how-infection-spreads https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/13/21128209/coronavirus-fe... In general the media was strangely quiet about it until very recently.
KirinDave 7y ago
Manufacturing Consent is a good book and I believe most of what's in it, but you should read the parts about the mechanics of it as opposed to assuming there is any unity or conformity in the production of News. It'd also a bit rich to be cursing at "the Media" for lying as the Executive and his most friendly media outlets just got done trying to play off the global pandemic as a liberal conspiracy nat CPAC.

BryantD 7y ago

Probably the latter. If the nationwide effort had already been underway when the President made that claim, Google Comms would have no reason to hide that fact. Instead, they initially pointed the media at Verily and only yesterday announced a larger effort. When you say the media was confused by multiple efforts, you’re sort of hand waving away the fact that the same account you linked pointed the world at Verily right after the President’s speech.

KirinDave 7y ago

I mean, I thought the media was right and I work at Google. I knew the Verily site existed (a member of my team helped with a production readiness review last week). So if they went and looked for Googlers who knew about the national effort and came up bank, and then didn't get immediate confirmation from Google, then they ran with a story. Obviously I am but a small part of this massive machine and even though I am in a lot of the COVID-19 chats and have been engaged with various technical readiness efforts since we'll before US took it seriously, so maybe I missed it. But also, I wouldn't be surprised if the Executive has just recently enlisted Google to do this. The "1700 engineers" number is super weird. That's much too high to be any one reasonably sized team, but it's definitely smaller than the impact footprint I infer at Google. So my prediction is Trump said nonsense but the Executive decided to try and make it reality afterwards. Google as a company would definitely jump on doing this sort of thing for free.

paulie_a 7y ago
The 1700 number is just replies then mistated in the speech. That wouldn't be the actual size of the team I bet.
- KirinDave 7y ago
  Source?
  - paulie_a 7y ago
    The article which has the word replies in it regarding the number of volunteers.
zaroth 7y ago
I wouldn’t totally put it past Trump to announce it therefore forcing Google’s hand. But it also seems reasonable that someone in the Admin has a conversation with someone high up at Google and most of Google wasn’t aware of it immediately. It clearly wasn’t straight up invented out of thin air, because the 1,700 number correlates. Someone gave him that number after talking with Google. Either way... IMO, booting it into Google’s court (whether they truly volunteered or not, maybe we’ll never know) is a way more effective way to get the site done quickly than trying to get it done inside the government. I guess we’ll see what they stand up in the next week. Personally I really like the idea of “Corporate America” pulling out all the stops in every way that they can to provide COVID support. Whether it’s credit cards waiving payments and interest, tech companies donating software/services, retail stores volunteering space and workers to support outreach and testing efforts. I’d love to see a massive mobilization of the commercial sector truly bringing everything they have to bear on this challenge.