In times of need, everyone does their best to pitch in and help out.  Starting with the Haiti earthquake and now with the latest disaster in Chile, Google has stepped in to help in two ways.  When you’re the Internet’s biggest search engine and advertising company, how can you help?  Well, via search and advertising.  Not only is Google advertising ways to donate to relief efforts, they’re using their application-programming prowess to put together Google Chile Person Finder, where you can go to search for or provide information on friends and loved ones in the disaster zone.

The Person Finder is powered by your listings, so if you’re in Chile and you’re okay, get to the web and let your loved ones know you’re fine.  Similarly, if you know your cousin is fine, hop onto the site and enter his information in so everyone else knows he’s okay, too.  Now, all the information you enter is shared, so this is probably not something you want to use if you have privacy concerns, but something tells me there are more important issues to worry about in Haiti and Chile, like food and water.

Tags: Google, Person Finder, disaster help, records, Chile, Haiti, Google Person Finder, apps, disaster relief efforts, information coordination, earthquake relief, earthquake help

I’ve never had a problem eating food from a gas station.  Just two weeks ago, I ate a couple of hot dogs purchased from a gas station.  They were delicious.  That’s not the first time I’ve eaten gas station food, and I doubt it will be the last.  There’s nothing like a fun food novelty. […]

Commissioner Roger Goodell gathered 32 NFL owners for one big question.  One of the league’s most wanderlust-stricken franchises is looking to move again.  The Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, tired of gutting it out in a run-down stadium, were once again looking for greener pastures.  Only the Miami Dolphins refused to cooperate.  With a vote of 31-1, […]

In 2006, an injury to Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe opened the door for an undrafted free agent by the name of Tony Romo to take the helm of America’s Team and lead the Dallas Cowboys to an early playoff exit.  Bledsoe went from starter to afterthought in a season.  Now, the circle continues […]

For 89 years, Oscars has never had a major mistake.  The last few Oscars might have had a few flubs, but at least they never got the most important category of the night wrong.  Well, that’s now changed, all thanks to OG Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.  When Faye Dunaway called […]

Tom Brady has been wildly successful, if controversial.  He’s the first quarterback ever to win five Super Bowls and only the second player to do so after Charles Haley.  Unlike Haley, Brady won all his Super Bowls with the same team, the New England Patriots.  The only thing that seems to be able to stop […]

Ben Affleck, no matter what you might think of him, is a talented actor and director.  He’s got the goods, but he’s smart enough to know when he’s in over his head.  All along, since he took on the mantle of Batman, he’s had his eyes on writing, directing, and starring as the Caped Crusader. […]

In May, students for the for-profit American College of Education were running into some problems.  Their access to email accounts and course information was locked down by Google, who had disabled their accounts.  The reason why?  A fired IT worker for the American College of Education locked the school out of their Google cloud account. […]