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Online help

Markus Lütticke / bkNovember 12, 2013

The Philippines are wracked with suffering and destruction following Typhoon Haiyan. The country needs urgent help, and online social networks are playing an important role in providing it.

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https://twitter.com/typhoonhaiyan 11. November 2013
Image: twitter.com/typhoonhaiyan

Horrific images from the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan have appeared around the world. At least 10,000 people are thought to have been killed in the Philippines, and thousands more are still missing, and it has proved extremely difficult for friends and family to make contact with one another. Many people don't know whether their loved ones have survived - and if so where they are.

http://google.org/personfinder/2013-yolanda 11. November 2013
A screenshot of Google's person finder

Social networks and other Internet services have played a decisive part in overcoming these difficulties in the snowballing humanitarian crisis - in finding missing people, in the coordination of help on the ground, and the collection of donations.

Searching for the missing

Google has started a "Person Finder" website, where missing people can be registered. Anyone with information about someone can use it to help those searching. Nearly 50,000 people have already been entered.

Messages have also been left on Twitter by people searching for loved ones, usually with photos and information about where they were last seen.

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