Question

It looks like the virus is directly impacting the industry. Do you think this global event will affect how we work and network in the future? "Google just canceled its upcoming Google News Initiative Global Summit due to the coronavirus situation. It was a two-day event, held in Google's Sunnyvale office, bringing together hundreds of people across the media industry"
https://9to5google.com/2020/02/28/r...irus/

Answer 1

That was a bit extreme from them. @boatload Pence is organizing groups to pray it away. We have nothing to worry about.  

Answer 2

@frottage I told you the virus hit their server. Call me a medium now  

Answer 3

Wow. first won Holly Starks the Internet yesterday and now a google employee has corona virus.  

Answer 4

Should have used an anti virus. Some are free with premium upgrades.  

Answer 5

Do you think this global event will affect how we work and network in the future? Answer - It just depends, all situations are different but in general it would appear to work. - John Mueller

Answer 6

We should definitely be prepared to allow remote work, and I think schools should start video classes when needed. That stinks for kids who might lose out on snow days up here in the north, but there is no need to be going to large groups these days. That might also mean helping those who don't have access to fast internet in rural and poor communities though.  

Answer 7

Directly impacting the industry @legroom? Well fuck yes it is, we have already had three major accounts pause all of our campaigns on Baidu/360 and Wechat in China and another delaying their launch until later this year because their Chinese plant is closed down. Then you have productivity reduced in Asia as people work from home instead of the office.  

Comments

Yeah. One of our clients in China is also wanting to delay paying our Jan invoice until June. SEO not ad spend

Answer 8

Oh hell no!  

Answer 9

All Google Engineers

Answer 10

I do know my home office is free of Covid. Hoping it doesn't become transmissible through chat box  

Answer 11

But will having the virus become a ranking factor?  

Comments

@hachure  

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I was coming here to say that  

Answer 12

Great. All my sites hang out with Google all the time. Now my sites will get the corona virus too.  

Answer 13

The economic impact is going to directly affect our industry. It is going to affect the global economy. The stock market pretty much tells the story. We are on track mathematically for a full pandemic and a subsequent global economy reset. It is not something to be taken lightly at this point. Massive hurt coming if supply chains completely broken. Lots of fear going on too which makes for tight pockets.  

Answer 14

Yes it will. The media and many politicians are ramping up the seriousness of of it beyond all certain and absolute provable need for concern. Unfortunately, as it often does, the perception becomes the reality. As far as the media are concerned it;s business as usual - "be afraid, be very afraid. " Whether through intent or stupidity, the chance of it destroying economic growth is now high. Selfish, short-sighted (maybe shorted) fuckwits that they are. Look, anyone with any memory and insight knows that what led to the problems in 2008 were never sorted out. The bubble is way bigger now and it could be that the pricks holding the attention pins are perhaps making it pop right now. The people at the top know that the bubble must pop and this could be the ideal thing to blame it on rather than the system (them) itself. Or, some will see through this and stop it. Whatever. Frankly, I have no idea what is going to happen. The Dow is rigged anyway, so I guess it depends upon who exactly is holding the reins now.  

Answer 15

I've seen cancellation announcements for various scientific and technology conferences for a couple of weeks. I guess 2020 will be remembered as the year we had fewer conferences. But I think that in the long run we'll go back to seeing these professional gatherings. The Internet hasn't yet developed a good online conference model. Not even Google has pulled that off, and they've been testing ideas for years.  

Answer 16

Just a bunch of hoopla. Remember Zika, Ebola and the Bird Flue?  

Answer 17

Hi from Italy  

Comments

@batter my friends just cancelled their dream vacation to Italy because of it

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@rudderpost they shouldn't have really. 90% it's media hype. There are two small areas where the virus has spread which have been quarantined. The rest of Italy is fine. I'm traveling and tourism my self and this panic is going to kill us waaaay more then the virus!  

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That’s too bad to hear. They were getting word that Italy was getting hit harder than most and were afraid that many of the places they wanted to see would be closed. They did say they are planning on rescheduling in the future though.  

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@rudderpost yeah, actually you're right. I didn think about museums and such. They did close everything down in total panic for a week, then they've realized that they were doing some serious damage to the economy and it went all back to normal in day. It is a mess anyway you look at it. My site lost 60% traffic in a day.  

Answer 18

Just created a new web domain. Coronavirusfordummies

Comments

@marutani emmm. was that mean by brilliant? smart?  

Answer 19

Situation is Outbreaking.  

Answer 20

I don't think we can believe anything Google tells us.  

Answer 21

Hope that Corona wont hit their RankBrains

Answer 22

A Facebook conference, too.  

Answer 23

I just lost a pretty big deal due the severe drop in International tourism from it

Answer 24

This will effect things in ways that people don't realize. My industry, pest control, same topic came up. The consensus was no big deal, heck we already wear respirators a lot of the time. Then we were reminded that the majority of pesticides are manufactured in China. This will affect many industries in strange ways.  

Answer 25

Does that mean they would penalize all the Corona virus website.?  

Answer 26

For a while at least. Facebook has cancelled their annual developers conference and Japan and the IOC are talking about possibly cancelling the summer olympics

Answer 27

I'm mostly online and don't outsource, but I can see massive disruption in offshoring services coming. When it hits India it's going to really hurt

Comments

@deluge Whyte not saying it’s good thing, but could possibly raise the value of in state employees.  

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@centuple yeah it will, had a client drop their ppc agency when they found out they offshore the work just this week.  

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@deluge Whyte I’m not surprised I would be too

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@centuple cause, part lie, part security issue, part corona concern

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@deluge Whyte exactly

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@centuple im sort of looking forward to it. if my team doesn't get sick. and we are all pretty much just working from home now in GC. we could get a little boost in business when companies who outsource to places being ravaged can't deliver

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@deluge Whyte agreed, it will balance out though with marketing being the first thing that drops during hard times

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@centuple no marketing no sales. Just demonstrated this a few weeks back. Pull all pbns, no sales. Put them back sales. Lesson learned

Answer 28

Yes I do. I don’t think we are prepared for the outbreak. People are used to the media sensationalizing news so no one is paying much attention to this here.  

Answer 29

Wait until Corona update hits the SERPS.  

Answer 30

The travel industry is crashing. man not good

Answer 31

Damnit new Iranian strain hits my city 10 minutes from home

Answer 32

It is getting scary but it is going to spread all over (literally impossible to stop its spread in this connected world) and the critical need is to soon have a working vaccination or medication for this "flu"  

Answer 33

No its all hysteria. the stock crashes show how manipulative and what a mass psycholocigal driven species we are. corona is just a more deadly form of flue with a mortality twice as high. most people with strong immune systems will get infected and not even realize it. back to normal. my prayers are still with the old and sick ppl that got infected and are threatened.  

Answer 34

Not sure where people are getting this "mortality twice as high as the flu" from. The mortality rate of the flu is 0. 1% -we're being told that for coranavirus it's 2% (but if you just divide the number of cases by the number of deaths it's actually a lot higher - maybe around 3. 5%. ) The fact that people who are infected can pass on the disease while they still appear to be healthy is the biggest reason why the virus probably can't be stopped at this point (although if you behave as though you're trying to avoid the flu, that will lessen your chances of actually becoming infected). Here's a doctor's take on it if you want a professional view.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h_...POyOE

Comments

What!? How dare you bring facts into this!  

Answer 35

One of my friends who runs a tech supply company got a US government bulletin this week regarding how long it is suspected the virus survives on various packing materials and to quarantine the product shipped into their plant in TN accordingly. So now they won't even open shipments without full body protective suits on.  

Answer 36

Google should try to give coronavirus a manual penalty, or put it in the sandbox