How technology giants help people through disaster

At the close end of the Boston International Marathon on April 15, at least two explosions were accidentally near the finish line, and immediately, the third explosion occurred near the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, causing many casualties. In order to make it impossible for terrorists to remotely manipulate bombs by telephone , shut down all over Boston's telephone network, which leaves people suddenly unable to get in touch, and in response to this, Google has taken the appropriate steps to restart the Person Finder page, the person you want to contact or the letter you know can be posted on The People Finder , Google will match them to help you find the target.

In fact, this is not the first time Google has done this, Google in 2005 set up a disaster response team, whenever a disaster occurs, the Google Disaster response team will quickly respond to the introduction of attentive service, Let's take a look at how Google has been involved in the "Save the World" approach through technology.

Hurricane

As the science and technology superhero, Google Disaster response Team "career" from the August 2005 "Katrina" Hurricane hit the Gulf of Mexico began. In this operation, Google provides people with basic information, such as the route of storms, shelters, emergency phone numbers, and quick donation channels. At the same time, Google Earth and Google Maps for the disaster area to create a satellite cover map to accurately show the destruction of various locations, to help disaster relief workers and the U.S. Air Force to find people waiting for rescue. After the incident, Google received a formal commendation from the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

Another big effect of Google in the face of Hurricanes on October 29, 2012, Google developed the "Sandy" version of the map, people can not only track the "Sandy" road in the United States, but also access to government warning messages, such as evacuation notices and storm alarms. Google, of course, has always provided information on climate data, satellite imagery, evacuation routes and shelters.

Earthquake

Earthquakes are also a common and devastating natural disaster, and the region is more widespread, and Google has been involved in several earthquake aid, such as Haiti, Chile and the Wenchuan earthquake. Google has provided a complete picture of the disaster and a variety of search and rescue, assistance information.

The last two operations in March 2012 and this April, Google provided support for earthquakes in Japan and Indonesia respectively. Google, for its part, has used the Google Earth to provide earthquake-related disaster information and satellite imagery, and has launched the person Finder to aggregate videos from people's locations across Japan via YouTube, as well as showing actual damage through street-view maps. In addition, they created a "Crisis response page" on Google Japan, which focused on victims and donations, bringing in millions of of dollars in donations.

Fire

In 2009, the wildfires in northern Melbourne, which killed 130, led Google to focus on fire-disaster preparedness measures-they developed a flash map to track the entire fire situation. The map marks the location of the fire and uses different colours to represent the fire control situation.

In the ensuing fire in Colorado State in 2012, Google created the US wildfires map to provide the fire perimeter, the American Red Cross sanctuary and satellite maps.

Man-made

In addition to natural disasters, Google is also committed to preventing "man-made disasters", such as Google announced in November 2012, will be in search and mapping products to increase the amber alarm system, hoping to help police find abducted children- As long as the location entered in the search bar is within the effective range of the site, Google Maps will automatically mark the location of the yellow circle, listing the name of the missing child, age, sex and the location and time of disappearance. Users can also further check the details of the missing child's appearance and other police-provided information.

In the case of frequent shootings, the New York media combined with Google's data created a Google map containing the names and addresses of gunmen, marking the ownership of a gun license.

Disaster forecast

In addition to responding to the earthquake disaster, Google is also committed to the pre-disaster. For example, in 2009 it worked with the United States Geological Bureau to launch the seismic information Search service. By searching for "earthquake" or "Time location", you can relate to the immediate authoritative seismic information.

Duncan Agnew, of the University of California, San Diego, has also produced seismic data from 1900 to the Google Earth that could help scientists better predict earthquakes.

In January and March this year, Google provided public alarm systems in the US and Japan--which will provide users with dangerous warnings of earthquakes and tsunamis in Google Maps, Google search, and Google Now.

In addition to the examples listed above, you will find that Google aid is visible in disasters such as floods and tsunamis. So we see, as a technology company, Google is always the most timely and appropriate through its Internet services to help people through the disaster, it gives us the feeling is never a cold machine or commercial products, but a smart, human partner. At the end of the day, I think it's a good place to use the comments from Google's People finder news article comment section today to express a lot of respect for Google-"I take my hat off to Google, where Google is always there, Always willing to offer help in the way that you can. Thank you. ”