Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) will use their resources and technology to help trace survivors in Nepal’s earthquake tragedy.
The 7.9 magnitude that hit Nepal caused a lot of devastation and loss of lives. Up to now, many people are still missing, and not confirmed whether alive or not. Another problem is finding loved ones who survived as the casualties were many. So it will probably take a while family members to find them. Google and Facebook have joined in the search for survivors of the disaster.
On Saturday, Mark Zuckerberg stated that his company had created a new feature called safety check. The tool is simple and easy to use. It sends messages to individuals in Nepal and prompts them to click a certain button that notifies their Facebook friends that they are fine. It also lets family and friends know whether the individual is there or in another location other than the disaster area.
Google, on the other hand, brought back its person finder feature. It is not as different from Facebook’s Safety Check as they both have the same concept. However, Google’s person finder feature assists by searching for missing persons in a disaster area and then posts it the friends and family. The tool also gives individuals an opportunity to enhance the search by putting up photos and descriptive information about lost person. There is a comment option that lets people communicate any information that could be relevant.
The two features are advantageous because they create a database where searches can be cross referenced with the available database information. It is a great idea for the two companies to come up with such tools that have a lot of relevance and focus on the welfare of individuals.
Unfortunately for the situation in India, there has been network problems in the disaster region since the earthquake struck. This reduces the effectiveness of the two features. Despite that problem, the two features will continue to be useful.
