For those-whose loved ones-were-impacted-by the recent series of destructive earthquakes in Japan and Ecuador,-making contact with those still in the countries is obviously a priority. Thankfully, American Web services-and cell phone carriers are assisting in ways they can: on Tuesday, Google and Verizon launched separate programs-aimed to helping friends and family reconnect with one another in the aftermath of last week’s natural-disasters. Google, for its part, has deployed Person Finder, an open source registry and message board-that allows-non-profit organizations, authorities, and individuals update the-status of-people reported missing. It’s a tool Google has activated in the past — it was developed in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, in fact. And it’s been used to great effect: it-helped track the movements of more than 616,000 people following the-T

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