Pages

Total Pageviews

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Google Uses Social Networks to Find Missing Persons in Japan

I found this topic to be so interesting. After Friday's disastrous 8.9 magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami, thousands of people are missing and desperate to be reunited with their loved ones. In order to make the search process easier, Google has launched the 'Person Finder Tool,' which is a free informational service where people who are looking for someone can post that they are looking for them or post that they have found someone. The tool is available in multiple different languages and uses data from other social networking sites to search for records of missing people.

"They are currently tracking about 122,000 records as of March 13, 2011." 















Because other communications methods like phone lines and cell towers were shut down and there was a mass disruption of traditional channel of communication, Google decided to deploy this Person Finder tool. The 'Person Finder Tool' was also used to successfully relocate victims of the Christchurch, New Zealand Quake (last month) and the disaster in Haiti.

Although it deals with horrific natural disasters, Person Finder is an exceptionally brilliant tool. I find it extraordinary to see how vast our capabilities are with programs like Google and other social networking sites and how they can contribute to something so vital.
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. SheenaShahMarch 13, 2011 at 4:23 PM

    New media may have its downfalls (as seen with this week's topics on the addictive nature of social networking and digital communication) but this feature just goes to show the extent to which new media benefits society. I think that this Google feature is ingenious: the fact that 122,000 records have already been posted within three days is truly astonishing. Mother nature may bring on natural disasters, but at this day and age, technology has the ability to counteract (or at least alleviate) even the worst destructive forces. For instance, in response to the crisis in Haiti, the American Red Cross was able to provide aid by generating donations via the internet, and even social networking sites. Apart from Google Person Finder, I expect a great deal of aid for Japan's Tsunami Relief will be accumulated via the internet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Allie FosterMarch 14, 2011 at 11:04 AM

    I completely agree. As much as we criticize new media and social networking sites for negatively impacting youth and society in general, there is a lot of good that it is doing in the world around us. I saw a news segment a few weeks ago about a StormTracker Weather Application for iPhones that helps predict destructive storms hours before they come... with just a touch of the iPhone. This blew my mind.

    There's no doubt that technology helps in harmful situations. Just today I was reminded of Egypt's revolution and the impact that Facebook had on it. As technology continues to change, I'm interested in seeing how much more new media will benefit society.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)