Do a quick search on Facebook for “Haiti” and you’ll see the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of users rapidly updating their statuses expressing their empathy toward the people of Haiti, following the country’s catastrophic earthquake. In comparison to last week’s California quake which most people slept through, the volume of updates passing through Facebook is phenomenal.
It’s clear that the Haiti quake is devastating and by tomorrow, updates from the country will provide greater insight into the magnitude of the catastrophe. As the major media outlets are reporting, the quake which measured 7.0 on the richter scale, may be the largest quake in the region in more than 2 centuries. Whether or not Facebook’s search feature is a perfect tool, integration into the company’s homepage could help keep users up to date on recent news events.
While Facebook’s public search has seen more public updates since users were pushed through the privacy transition tool, there are still plenty of improvements that the company needs to make to the search product. More important is making this data available to developers who would kill to get a piece of Facebook’s real-time search product.
As Facebook users rush to share their thoughts and prayers for Haiti, Facebook search may be showing how it performs under the pressure of the most significant global event since millions of users had their status updates become public. As many would note, the quality of the information displayed within real-time results is not really valuable. Instead, tools which help us filter and make sense of real-time data will become more important as the volume of real-time data continues to rise.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=24974404026...
Comment by Facebook User — January 12, 2010 @ 5:22 pm
http://haiti.ushahidi.com is tracking reports from SMS on the ground + web-based news.
Comment by Chris Blow — January 13, 2010 @ 12:10 am
Je suis a la recherche de André Drisdelle et Sylvie Mathieu qui sont en Haiti a Petionville en voyage missionnaire. SVP si vous avez de leur nouvelle, m'écrire a Eric_guay@yahoo.com.
Nous prions Dieu de mettre sa main sur Haiti afin de venir en aide.
I would like to get any news regarding André Drisdelle and Sylvie Mathieu whom are in the Petionville – Haiti in missionary.
Please if you have any news please contact me at Eric_guay@yahoo.com.
We Pray God to help Haiti.
Comment by Eric — January 13, 2010 @ 8:13 am
To all my friends from Haiti, especially Charles from Boston, my heart and prayers go out to you. God Bless.
Sheila
Comment by Sheila Carpenter — January 13, 2010 @ 8:16 am
I'm in search of my brother and sister name Guyvelor and James Pierre in Haiti, Delmas 76 rue Fragnauville pls if anyone get any news about them please contact me at this email address Guyvelor2006@yahoo.com. I can't get in contact with them thank you.
Comment by Nadia Pierre — January 13, 2010 @ 10:32 am
je suis a la recherche de ces membres de ma famille, jolise noel , raynold noel, spenceur jean-baptiste, joecelyne , jeanfrantz, ronald saintilme, hermitte dume.
plaese if you any news about them cantact me at ritza88@yahoo.com
thank and may god bless
Comment by ritza noel — January 13, 2010 @ 10:43 am
que Dieu vous aide a traverser cette terrible épreuve…je présente mes sincères condoléances a tous ceux qui ont perdu quelqu'un…courages!! mes frères et soeurs!!!!
Comment by Abdessamad — January 14, 2010 @ 7:50 am
I'm in search of the following persons:
Richeland Francior
Ismentha Preval
Marielinie Preval
Delma 21
Haiti
Pls if anyone have seen any of these persons please contact me at kevin4km@hotmail.com
I can't get in contact with them.
Comment by Kevin Myers — January 14, 2010 @ 5:56 pm
Also on this site you can find people of Haiti:
http://helpboard.sternet.com.mx
Comment by J. Benitez — January 24, 2010 @ 1:53 pm
Someone please help me find Johny Dujour.
Comment by sue — February 28, 2011 @ 11:37 am