I keep thinking a lot about the frustration of the administration taking about how people should Google things like covid tests or access to vaccines. I understand the criticisms that people see it as dismissive or insufficient. But I also think it represents a practical change…
In the past (putting aside the last admin, where they didn’t even try to help), the response to crises was often, “let’s make a government website”. but the sad truth is, nobody goes to a .gov site unless they have to. It’s not meeting the people where they are.
But if accurate, up-to-date info is accessible in Google (or whatever other search engines or apps people use regularly), that has a meaningful, effective impact on increasing access. Admittedly, it still sucks as messaging, but it represents a structural improvement.
There’s also a challenge because of the frustrations about the response overall. But even if they improve the response (I hope they do!) it’d still be good for people to be able to find out about resources without having to learn a new website. How could that be communicated?
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