Earlier today, Google launched it’s Person Finder app to help find missing persons and reunite survivors with their families in the aftermath of the recent 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan. Aside from the aftershocks, the earthquake has also caused a massive tsunami, landslides, flooding and fires all across the country. Initial reports from different news agencies indicate that around 400 people are confirmed dead and hundreds of others missing.
The Person Finder app is an online, interactive database that allows users to search for missing persons and also submit information about missing or injured persons. Person Finder is currently tracking 7200 records and is available in both English and Japanese. The app can also be embedded into websites like the one below:
GOOGLE PERSON FINDER APP
This is not the first time that Google has used the Person Finder technology. It was first launched and used after the Haiti earthquake and was also recently used for the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that hit Christchurch, New Zealand. Person Finder was developed by Google’s philanthropic department called Google Crisis Response team.
Our thoughts and prayers to the people in Japan, especially to the families who’ve lost their loved ones.
Anyone who have family or friends who were affected by the recent earthquake in Japan? Is the Person Finder something that you were able to use to help locate your family or friends? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
@trench – Thanks! Yeah, I heard you guys also got hit by the tsunami. Hope everything is okay there.
Great post Jaypee. I just live 3 and a half hours by plane to Japan. Lots of friends hurting. Our island is run on tourism and it was just devastating to see so many people hurting from this event.
@Sourish – That’s great. The more people know about this service, the more chances that people will be reunited with their families. Btw, amazingly the Internet connection in Japan is the one that’s not affected by the disaster.
shared with my readers . but since there must be internet outage due to the massive destruction and powerlines cut , i dnt know how useful this will be
@Rakesh – Yeah, it’s good to know that Google is using it’s resources to help out.
Google is working good! That accident was really horrific moment for my life.