Shortly after the magnitude 8.9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami hit northeastern Japan, Google set up a “Person Finder” website that people can use to find someone who may be missing in the area or to report someone who’s been found in the area.
Google set up similar sites after the Christchurch, Haiti, and Chile earthquakes as well.
The Person Finder tool can be embedded by web developers into other web pages, which could potentially help various volunteer and aid groups quickly set up a missing persons’ database on their own sites.
At the present time, the Person Finder site is tracking almost 7,000 records of missing and located people in the area.