There is a new way to find out whether caring about a disaster is passé
The recent earthquake in Japan, which was followed by a tsunami that led to a third disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant brought out support, financial and emotional, from across the world. This world solidarity to commiserate and help the people of Japan was most visible on the home page of the big three search engines, Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. I don’t know about you, but I know a disaster is serious and demands attention when there is a link on Google’s home page pointing to a relief resource page. Google had the link, Yahoo! added a little note to its logo, and Bing a link in the footer of its home page. But thankfully, the disaster is now over, and everyone can move on with their lives. How do I know this, you ask? Well, Google took the link off of its home page, and the Yahoo! logo is back to its normal self. As always Bing is behind the curve when it comes to, not only search technology, but also what’s important in the world–it still has a link on its home page to information and resources about the Japanese earthquake.
Luckily, since the aftermath of the largest earthquake to hit Japan is now under control, we can get back to more important things, like following our favorite college basketball teams. Google is on top of that too–there is now a link to a college basketball resource page on the Google home page.
It’s funny how everything falls into place. Just as Google needed the online real estate for a link to college basketball information, the Japanese problems subsided, making the resource link on Google’s home page unnecessary.
You just mad because they changed the voice of the duck…
Aw:) well,it is indicative of a societal transition but the only problem is that it is a wordless communication and many haven’t been informed and therefore(∴) keep relying on the old system –> ∴ although they are a part of the new system ∵ – as you exemplify in your text. If enough people(how many is enough?I don’t know) but if enough people reacted to what has happened I am sure that google, bing and yahoo would do what the self – appointed and seemingly representatives of the majority of the people asked. Or if they, the representatives were also experts start a debate and then together with the search engines representatives evaluate the interest outcome and act accordingly etc. (?)Eh, just a thought. Thank you for sharing:)