"It's important for people in Japan to have crisis preparedness and response information available at their fingertips," Yu Chen, Google's partner technology manager, announced in a blog post Wednesday. "We know that when a disaster strikes, people turn to the Internet for more information about what is happening."
Japan is the first international location to get Public Alerts, which notifies people about emergencies when they search for information online. It was chosen in light of the devastating earthquake that struck off the country's eastern coast in 2011.
Clicking on "More info" or (“詳細”) under the alert will provide more details, including a full description from the Japan Meteorological Agency, a link to its site, as well as arrival times and wave heights for tsunamis. For its part, Google Now will provide "recommended actions and information" that are tailored to a user's specific location.
Google uses data from the meteorological agency in its alerts, and has partnered with 14 Japanese prefectures and cities — including seven from the hard-hit Tōhoku region — to help users better access government data online.
The search giant added that it plans to expand Public Alerts to more countries "soon."
Check out several examples of the service, below:
Tsunami warning in Google Search results
Tsunami warning on Google Maps
How a tsunami alert would work in Fukushima
Tsunami warning card on Google Now
Images courtesy of Google; thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, yisris