Google to show Covid-19 vaccination information in Search, YouTube

With COVID-19 vaccination drive in India, Google is helping millions by showing vaccine related information in search and YouTube. The search giant is reportedly working with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation so that users can see up to date information about the vaccines and can reduce the spread of misinformation.

“As the government activates the processes involved in implementing these large-scale vaccinations, our teams have been hard at work to surface authoritative and timely information for people asking vaccine-related questions. We have worked with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to amplify this science-based narrative around vaccination drive, and have been working closely with the Rapid Risk Response team at the MoHFW that is tracking misinformation using social media listening tools across region and languages, and countering it with science-based messaging on vaccines and pandemic response overall,” said the firm.

Also read: Google has finally solved Chrome’s heavy-memory usage problem on Windows, macOS and Android

This means that when they open Google Search, they will be shown knowledge panels that provide a cluster of information on the effectiveness, safety distribution, side effects and more. They can also see this information in different languages including English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, and Hindi.

What's more is that the knowledge panels will show answers to some commonly asked questions along with real time statistics around vaccinations completed. It will also give additional links to the MoHFW website.

On YouTube, users will see a similar knowledge panel besides the COVID-19 related query results, like the one shown in search. This will also show you FAQ videos based on the most common topic around the vaccination along with a dedicated banner that includes links to key vaccination resources on the MoHFW website.

This will be rolling out over the coming weeks to Search, Maps and Google Assistant as well.