Google highlights Covid-19 updates in News, Search, Assistant and Podcasts

Coronavirus cases have crossed the 1.3 million mark. People are increasingly searching for news on the Covid-19 outbreak. Now, Google has introduced a new section within its apps and services that aims to dispense verified information to the users about the ongoing virus pandemic.

The company has introduced a new Covid-19 section in Google News that pulls together all the latest news at the global and local levels from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other authoritative sources. The coronavirus related news is organised under two sections within Google News. While the Latest subsection gives latest information pertaining to the outbreak to the users based on the regions where they are, the Global Impact subsection shows outbreak pertaining various regions across the globe including Africa, America, Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, South-East Asia and Western Pacific.

Google says that this feature is available in more than 20 countries across iOS, Android and web platforms and it will be available in other countries in the coming weeks. However, when we checked this feature on the web and the company's iOS-based app in India, while the platform does have a section dedicated to the virus outbreak, it doesn't have the sub-sections yet. It is possible that the company rolls out the update in the coming weeks.

"The Google News COVID-19 feature organizes stories by topic such as the economy, health care and travel—as well as by region so people can better understand the pandemic's impact around the world. We're also experimenting with how to best include a dedicated fact check section in this COVID-19 experience to highlight fact-check articles that address potentially harmful health misinformation," the company said in a blog post

Apart from Google News, the company has also updated Search and Assistant. "When people look for coronavirus information on Google Search, we show the latest news coverage at the top of their results...These news results are part of our comprehensive COVID-19 experience in Search, which provides easy access to authoritative health information and data," the company added.

Google Assistant, on the other hand, now provides users the latest updates pertaining to the pandemic in more than 10 languages on smart speakers and smart displays. This feature is available globally. Users can ask questions like, "Hey Google, what's the latest news on coronavirus?" to get the latest updates on the Covid-19 outbreak.

The company has also redesigned its Podcasts app to provide verified information to its users. "As part of the recently redesigned Google Podcasts app, we've added a dedicated carousel in several languages to connect people to these podcasts to help understand the coronavirus' impact from a variety of perspectives," the company added.