Google to the rescue!

As some may already know; Google helps to track victims/missing people in Japan. The website, http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com which is made by Google allows victims to notify where they are, but also allows signing up and giving information about anyone who is missing. Within a few hours the website created about 6000 dossiers and the numbers are still rising. However, the Person Finder of Google is not a ‘new’ project. 

Google launched the first Person Finder landing page 12 hours after an earthquake hit Haiti and, after 72 hours, the complete database went online and websites from, for example CNN, linked to it. However, Google thought that the website had to be online faster when a huge disaster had occurred. As a result, Google created a “Google Crisis Response Team” which was able to launch the website after the earthquake in Chile within 1 day. Moreover, in February 2011 Google launched the entire Person Finder Platform within 3 hours after an earthquake hit New Zealand. The Japanese Person Finder was another record though; it was online in just 1 hour after the earthquake hit.

There is also a problem with the Person Finder due to its accuracy, because it is open and available to everyone, this includes news agencies and people who ironically want to have a laugh. The inaccuracy comes from the fact that Google has no control over the information shown in the Person Finder, nor do they verify any given information. As a result, a few pranks started involving status updates about characters as “Michael Jackson” from username “Jackson Five”. 

Until now there are no clear results in the contribution of Google Person Finder in relation to the found people that are/were missing in Japan. However, it is a great relief for families or relatives to get a fast reply about a missing friend. For example: someone was looking for Markus Laiho and posted a message on the Person Finder, in less than one hour the user received a reply from another user who had just spoken to Markus Laiho (www.newsy.com).

Now you know: if a disaster occurs, people won’t just be looking for you offline, but online as well. 

Kind regards,

Rik Terpelle