Hacker News Reader

Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

Except that Google isn't doing that and said so.[1]

[1] https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/13/google-says-its-not-p...

Here's updated tweets from Google Communications. Their effort is in addition to what Verily was already doing: https://twitter.com/Google_Comms/status/1238989460127338497

Can you point out to me the statement where Google denies working on the web tool?

Google Communications says here that Verily (a sister company to Google) is working on a small scale tool for the Bay area: https://twitter.com/Google_Comms/status/1238574670686928906

Verily is an Alphabet subsidiary. To the majority of Americans, 'Alphabet' is Google, because Alphabet is the successor organization to Google the company. All these ridiculous technicalities are nuts. No one cares that Alphabet decided to reorganize to maximize shareholder value. Alphabet is literally Google, and still trades under that ticker (GOOG). When people talk about Google the company, they mean Alphabet, and you know that.

Like, most people on HN talk about how 'Google Fiber' is part of Google, but really it's not, it's part of Alphabet, which owns the trademark Google. Or again, when GV (formerly known as Google Ventures) invests in a company, people say 'Google invested in <blah> company', because GV is alphabet, which is Google because... Google the company means Alphabet in common parlance. Stop nitpicking.

The important part is not google vs alphabet, it’s the fact that their site will only be available for the Bay Area.

Exactly. For weeks people have been clamoring to get tested, including outside of the Bay Area. But whatever they’re launching will not help provide this in the short-term. That is the point.

And that there isn't 1700 people working on it.

Good point. The most important part of the speech is the number of engineers working on it. If we have 1699 it might not work but if only we could know we had 1700 then we would all be saved /s.

Number of engineers is a sign of the scale and significance of the project.

initially.

You:

> for the Bay area

Them (in the Tweet you linked to):

> ... with the hope of expanding more broadly over time.

Google Communications says here that "Google is partnering with the US Government in developing a nationwide website that includes information about COVID-19 symptoms, risk and testing information."

https://twitter.com/Google_Comms/status/1238989460127338497

Will everyone who blasted Trump in this entire post apologize? Don’t hold your breathe.

If I could make a list of the people least deserving of an apology, Trump would be near the top.

People with integrity apologize based on their own actions, not their opinions of the qualities of the other party.

I apologise to douchebags regularly, if I'm wrong, though I'm very clear about the limitations of the apology.

No, no not apologizing to Trump. Apologizing to HN readers for spreading the fake news even after Google themselves came out with a statement saying that they are in fact doing what Trump announced.

No. Did you actually watch the press conference? What Trump announced is what Verily is building. But he implied it would be nationwide. It’s not.

> Government in developing a nationwide website that includes information about COVID-19 symptoms, risk and testing information.

This sounds like it’s in addition to what Verily is building. So I doubt it’s the diagnostic and get to testing site function that Verily’s working on.

It’s absolutely separate from the Verily work, because they explicitly say that.

Other than that all we know is it’s “information about COVID symptoms, risk, and testing information”. Which at least aligns roughly with what was announced on Friday.

A quick read of the article confirms that a google subsidiary IS MAKING A WEBSITE. Trump got all the details wrong as usual, but the main idea is true.

That article just seems like its fishing for "trump bad" material.

Not a subsidiary of Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet.

Why pretend there’s a difference?

Because there is?

it's not a difference that matters in this context.

Seems like it doesn't matter simply due to your political bias.

You can invert that statement and it has just as much validity: "Seems like it matters simply due to your political bias"

Absolutely, but only one of those statements is correct in this context.

Nobody in the real world understands Alphabet - they just say Google.

Under the circumstances, shouldn't we demanding that the executive branch do a bit more than getting the main idea correct? Isn't it newsworthy when the president, in probably the single most important press event of his administration, got "all the details wrong as usual"?

Isn't that... "bad"? So why is it "fishing" to report "Trump bad" in this context?

This is bad. It's BAD. We have a clearly incompetent administration trying to coordinate the response to the worse disease outbreak in 102 years. And shouldn't the media be able to say that when it's true?

Shouldn't the burden of proof go the other way around? You seem to be arguing that a product must exist unless the putative author denies it exists?

But Google themselves have said it exists: https://twitter.com/Google_Comms/status/1238989460127338497

As has been pointed out ad nausum, what Google said was "Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time." which clearly does not match the product announced by the executive branch (i.e. it's not for everyone, there's no existing plan for rollout beyond the bay area).

And pointing that messaging mixup out is part of the job of good journalists, because the public deserves to know what it's getting (i.e. if you're in Seattle or NY, Google has announced nothing for you but hope). And in particular because this administration has a terrible record with delivering a clear message. Yet some people insist that as long as there is some reasonably charitable reading of a statement that isn't an obvious lie, that somehow the messaging problem is the media's to solve?

That may have been the case initially, but is clearly no longer true if you click through to the statement I linked. I'm not sure if Google was planning this prior to Trump's announcement or if it's reactionary, but the relevant portion is here:

"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 to other measures we are taking, including:...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..."

Arrgh, but those aren't the same thing! The press conference announced a test scheduling tool, which corresponds to the Verily product. That quote you just listed is just a static info site.

You seriously don't see why this is a messaging error? That it's newsworthy when Trump announced something that doesn't pan out? That it's of a piece with the other times he's done the same thing (e.g. repeatedly stating "anyone who wants to be tested can be tested" when the CDC rules actively being enforced placed strict limits on test availability)?

> President Donald Trump claimed during a Rose Garden news conference Friday that Google would soon publish a national-scale website related to the coronavirus, but company representatives said its plans relate to a small-scale site that will initially be focused on California cases and the timing was unlikely to be soon.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com