Osman Husain · · 2 min readGoogle launches People Finder for those affected by today’s earthquake
In case you missed the news, a massive earthquake measuring 7.5 on the richter scale rocked Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of India earlier today. The epicentre of the earthquake has been reported to be in the Hindu Kush mountain range – a region that straddles northern Afghanistan and Pakistan. There’s been widespread devastation, with over a hundred confirmed deaths so far, a figure that is likely to rise given the remoteness of the area.
Google has stepped in to help those affected by the quake as it’s likely many people might be missing or searching for their families. Google’s person finder allows individuals to post and search for information. The company rolls out the site after major disasters; it first started in 2010. The initiative is similar to what Facebook did during the Nepal earthquake, where they asked users in the affected areas whether they were safe and informed those in their network of their status.
Person Finder launched to help track missing persons for Pakistan, Afghanistan #earthquake → https://t.co/PwWtVhDi4l pic.twitter.com/fkyOnwAFqW
— Google (@Google) October 26, 2015
Update on 27th Oct, 12:09 AM: Facebook’s activated the Afghanistan earthquake safety check, which will verify the status of people in the affected areas and notify their friends.
Editing by Steven Millward
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