After responding to previous crisis’s in Haiti as well as Chile in South America, the search engine giant is once again displaying its charitable side by helping out the flood victims in Pakistan beyond a simple (yet always helpful) donation.
Pakistan has been struck by the worst flooding in its recorded history. The latest estimate of the number of people affected by the flood exceeds 14 million—more than the combined total of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Critical infrastructure has been damaged over the last two weeks and clean water is in short supply. As monsoons approach, flooding is expected to worsen. […]
Based on what we learned in Haiti, we’ve been working to develop Resource Finder, a new tool to help disseminate updated information about which services various health facilities offer. It provides a map with editable records to help relief workers maintain up-to-date information on the services, doctors, equipment and beds available at neighboring health facilities so that they can efficiently arrange patient transfers. […] This is the first time the tool is being launched during a disaster situation so we’ll be working closely with NGOs to understand its usefulness and will iterate accordingly. (Official Google Blog)
Although Google gets slammed by the public for privacy concerns or occasionally putting profits over principals, more often than not the search engine company is a major force for good, especially in a time of need.
It will be interesting to see how this tool improves in the future, as well as whether the company will find somewhat to integrate this across their other services like Android or Google Earth (where developers could build upon Google’s efforts.
Google has also created a person finder for Pakistani’s, which is currently available in English as well as Urdu.
Google has already donated a quarter of a million dollars to various NGO’s (both national and local), although their Resource Finder will probably do more to save lives in Pakistan than their “small” donation.
Originally posted on August 13, 2010 @ 3:37 pm
Thankyou Google. Helping Out in Distress