The launch of “COVID-19 Tracker” by Microsoft’s Bing Team comes two days after the US President Donald Trump stated that the government in collaboration with Google has started work on a COVID-19 portal for US citizens.
The COVID-19 tracker aggregates the data from sources like the World Health Organization (WHO), The US centers for Disease control and prevention (CDC) and the European Center for Disease Prevention & Control (ECDC), to provide updated statistics about infected cases, recovered cases and fatalities with the help of an interactive map that allows you to view the data country, state, city wise and all related news about the Coronavirus.
The Tracker though does not mention how frequently the numbers gets updated but at the time of the publication we found the updated numbers were as of the 23rd Mar 2019. That’s something that Microsoft can look into or probably they are working with a 24 hours’ window.
Apart from the statistics, users can also view region wise related articles with a click but not advisable for discovering news.
Though an interactive tool to see, check and monitor number of cases reported across the globe, however was in criticism about the featured articles not being always relevant or timely according to an analysis done by The Verge.
On the other hand, President Trump’s announcement reportedly caught Google off guard which is now working on the website with informational and personalized services for diagnosis but the tools not as ambitious as The President described.
About Microsoft:
Headquartered in Redmond, California, The American Multinational Technology Company, Microsoft develops, licenses, manufactures, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. Known for software’s such as Microsoft Windows, the Microsoft Office Suite, the Internet Explorer and its flagship hardware like Xbox video consoles and the touchscreen personal computers of the Microsoft Surface Lineup.
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