back to article You searched for 'japan tsunami' - well, there's one behind you

Google's public alert system - which splashes warnings across search, maps and Google Now pages - has been extended into Japan nearly a year after it debuted in America. The red flags aren't limited to just those living in the East Asian nation: anyone searching for things in Japan or looking at its maps on Google will see …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    ok.

    As long as the 'monthly test of the google disaster network' can be block using NoScript, I don't really care.

    At least it will be quieter than the tornado warning siren in the local park.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    For 500 points.... I was in Ibaraki prefecture when the quake hit...

    ...and it was scary! Its a cliche, but time really does seem to slow down in a crisis like that. Power went out very quickly but Wi-Max and 3G still functioned on and off. What's interesting though is during and after the Quake / Tsunami / Fukushima meltdowns--- the internet had sweet-f**k-all useful info.

    The problem was where there was info purporting to be useful, it was mostly wrong, i.e. early incorrect reports underestimating the severity of the Quake and Tsunami. Whereas the old-school radio was more relevant. It proves a lot was known even at the outset. This was probably due to some hard learning from the 2004 Asian Tsunami.

    Part of the problem was the info on the net was biased in favour of popular links tied to historical quakes and tsunamis, instead of the latest most relevant info. And doing a search adding the date only trapped pages that had ads, comments or last updated fields with March 11.

    For 500 points, anyone know how to use Google / Yahoo / Bing to perform a more practical search in a crisis? For starters how does one search for NEW pages that have only been created the same day?

    1. Blip

      Re: For 500 points.... I was in Ibaraki prefecture when the quake hit...

      Once you have a search result, google allows you to filter results to the 'Past hour' or 'Past 24 hours'.

      Or use the advanced search.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: For 500 points.... I was in Ibaraki prefecture when the quake hit...

        Yep it works reliably now.... cheers

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well...

    At least it's not Apple doing this.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nexus 4 certainly has the alerts system built in.

    http://www.droiddog.com/android-blog/2012/08/the-jelly-bean-update-brought-a-cell-broadcast-settings-menu-to-the-verizon-galaxy-nexus/

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