Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Even Google has a Heart


The wildfires plaguing southeastern Australia have left thousands of people homeless. According to CNN the fires have killed at least 173 people. Even worse, some investigators believe the wildfires were started by arson.

Now Google has stepped in to help in the fight against the fires. Google Maps have created a flash map to help keep track of the blazes. Google Maps have created this to decrease traffic on official emergency service sites. Those of us who are following the fires have essentially clogged the tubes. So out of the goodness of its heart, Google created the flash map to hopefully reduce the traffic burden on those emergency websites.



The fires are being tracked in real time by the State of Victoria’s Country Fire Authority via RSS feed. The numbers on the map show the amount of fires at a location. The colors indicate the current containment status of the fire site. I hope that this map will all soon have green markers everywhere-because that means the fires are safe and not ravaging people’s homes and land. Check out the link to keep track of the Australian Wildfires. http://www.gmodules.com/ig/creator?url=http://mapvisage.appspot.com/fires/vicfiresgadget.xml&synd=open&w=550&h=400&title=Victoria+Fires+Map&border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999

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