Google is integrating details of recent earthquakes into its search results to help people stay safe and informed in case the same occurs.
From Thursday, June 30, onwards, one can use both the mobile or desktop versions of Google Search to seek out information on an "earthquake near me" or just "earthquake" or anything along the lines.
Google announced the arrival of the feature, for which it has teamed up with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in a blog post. Chris Keitel, the company's software engineer, revealed that people usually wanted to learn how near they are to an earthquake's epicenter after the quake has occurred.
"Now people who feel the effects of an earthquake can ask Google directly about the disaster and get timely information to help them stay safe," notes Keitel.
A summary of the earthquake search will be shown on the top of the search results page.
The summary will contain the earthquake's magnitude or size, the areas that have been affected by the natural calamity, as well as safety tips on what to do in the aftermath. This information, Google feels, will help people be aware of what is happening in their surroundings, especially those in earthquake-prone zones.
Searches for an earthquake on Google will display comprehensive results for anything that is over magnitude 2.5 on the Richter scale. Anything lower than this intensity will not produce anything on the search results.
The search results will also show a map that displays the latest seismic activity, as well as the data for each quake. The data that is being pulled is essentially from the USGS Earthquake Map. The data posted by USGS is usually within minutes of an earthquake's occurrence in the U.S. This data will make its way to Google in a matter of seconds.
Google will also show the details on other quakes that might have happened within a short span of an earthquake's occurrence. This will help people ascertain if they are indeed experiencing the aftershocks or if it is a figment of their imagination.
The new feature will be helpful for people as per USGS' estimations, nearly 500,000 quakes take place each year worldwide. Of this number, 100,000 can be felt.
"We hope that by displaying this result directly in Search, people will have fast and easy access to the information they need to stay safe in the face of an earthquake," said Keitel.
