Google Person Finder to aid quake-hit Turkey

Search giant Google on Monday (Manila time) launched its Person Finder service to help locate missing residents in the wake of the magnitude-7.2 quake that struck Turkey. The Google Crisis Response Team said the Google Person Finder lets people enter a new record in the list for a person they are looking for. “Anyone who has information for the missing people on the list can update the data. All data entered will become publicly available, viewable and usable by anyone," it said in a blog post. The team explained that people going online can help search-and-rescue teams by updating the status of missing people. To use Google Person Finder, people can visit http://turkey-2011.googlepersonfinder.appspot.com/. Google Person Finder also allows people and organizations to publish missing person reports and offer information that helps find them. The tool can also be embedded in third-party websites. Used in Haiti, New Zealand, Japan quakes Google noted this was the first time the tool was made available in Turkish. “We hope Person Finder helps people get the latest information on missing persons using one common source," the team said. It was initially developed after the Haiti earthquake in January 2010 to help people trying to reach their friends and families, and to reunite them. The Person Finder tool was also used in the aftermath of the Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake in September 2010. On the other hand, 600,000 persons’ records were entered into Google Person Finder after the Japanese quake and tsunami last March 11. Person Finder is a product of Google’s non-profit Google.org operation, and had seen 55,100 missing person records submitted after the Haiti earthquake, 11,600 records after the New Zealand earthquake, and more than 600,000 after Japan’s disaster, The Next Web reported. — MRT, GMA News