When President Trump announced on Friday that Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) was developing a website where Americans can test themselves for the coronavirus, the details were unclear. There was no landing page, press announcement, or press release from the executives of the tech giant.
"Google is going to develop a website - it's going to be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past - to determine if a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location," Trump said at the press conference.
Hours after the remarks, Verily, an Alphabet subsidiary and a sister company of Google, acknowledged that it is set to launch a website that will allow users to plug in their symptoms and be directed to testing sites if necessary.
The website is currently in the early stages of development. Google hadn't been aware it would be mentioned by the president at all. Since then, Google executives are trying to show keep their promise even if Verily's website is limited to California and far more limited than Trump described.
The confusion started with information from an executive from Verily told Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, about the program. From there, Trump got the idea that Google was working on a coronavirus site.
A blog post written by Google's CEO Sundar Pichai and published on Sunday does not mention a questionnaire or testing. "We're partnering with the U.S. government in developing a website dedicated to COVID-19 education, prevention, and local resources nationwide," Pichai wrote. "We'll be rolling out an initial version of the website late Monday, March 16, and we'll continue to enhance and update it with more resources on an ongoing basis."
After media reports on Friday spread about the misinformation the Trump administration promised versus what Verily had announced, Trump slammed the reports as "fake news." On Sunday, Trump claimed Pichai called him to "apologize" and that everything Google has announced has "substantiated what I said on Friday." Google declined to comment on any conversations between Trump and Pichai.