Google’s Person Finder app helps connect families with missing persons in quake-hit Nepal

At a time when a devastating earthquake has hit Nepal and parts of India, modern web technology is turning out to be a boon with distressed family members being able to connect with loved ones, say reports.

Internet search giant Google'sPerson Finder app and social networking website Facebook are helping to locate the whereabouts of numerous persons stranded in quake-hit areas.

For example, members of one Himmatramka family residing in Birgunj in Nepal marked themselves safe on Facebook. According to Nitesh Himmatramka, their relatives back in India were worried about their safety, so they marked themselves safe to inform them.

The app was also used by people from West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh to notify their relatives that they were safe.

Facebook's safety tool, 'Safety App', was being used to locate persons in the affected areas. Launched in October last, the app was being used to generate alerts to Facebook friends of those trapped in the affected areas who, in turn, confirmed that they were safe.

"Safety Check is our way of helping our community during natural disasters and gives you an easy and simple way to say you're safe and check on all your friends and family in one place," Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg had said in a post.

The idea behind the app came after the 2011 tsunami in Japan that caused massive devastation in the country as millions of people had no clue about the whereabouts of their kin for weeks.

Facebook asks people in affected area to update their safety status thus, generating a notification to friends on the social network about their safety, he added.

The feature allows one to check the number of people who were safe and those affected by the calamity along with providing information about location where the person was trapped.

Person Finder helped the affected individuals post their safety statuses, which acted as a database of missing persons and helped their family members trace them.

It featured two options - "I'm looking for someone and "I have information about someone".

The technology gathers information from the families and affected individuals and allows them to upload information and locate their kin. The technology was offered in English and Nepali.

A 7.9-magnitude earthquake followed by several aftershocks rocked Nepal leaving a trail of death and destruction. The tremblor flattened houses and buildings, including the iconic Dharhara tower and the landmark Darbar Square in the heart of the capital.

The toll in the earthquake had crossed 3,200, according to reports.