This isn’t to say it should have – Google is a for-profit corporation based in America, and is in no way obligated to take note of natural disasters overseas.  Still, following its response to the cyclone in Myanmar, Google’s reaction to the earthquake seems rather weak.

Google China After Earthquake

Posts documenting the cyclone and/or soliciting aid for Myanmar’s civilians showed up on the Official Google Blog, the LatLong Blog, the Google Checkout Blog, and the Google Grants Blog.  A "donate" link was put on Google.com, and donation-matching is also taking place.

In contrast, there doesn’t yet appear to be anything in English relating to the earthquake.  Philipp Lenssen only writes, "The homepage of Google China links to a special map showing [earthquake] information.  Auto-translating the homepage text results in: ‘New! Google launched an emergency situation in the earthquake map, view the latest situation in earthquake relief.’"

Again, we’re not pointing fingers.  The situation is odd, though, especially given Google’s presence in China.

Although the military rulership of Myanmar, still called Burma by many countries, isn’t the most open of governments, their borders are as open as any to satellites.

Fortunately for relief efforts in the wake of the Myanmar cyclone disaster, the government’s continued refusal to grant visas to relief workers isn’t hindering Google from trying to help. The search advertising company showed on its LatLong blog a new layer for Google Earth that shows where to find all of the known healthcare centers (as of a 2002 survey) in the country.

The new layer, developed by Direct Relief International, may be downloaded by any Google Earth client:

We color-coded the sites by the capacity of the facility so that you can visually differentiate between larger hospitals, specialized medical units, and clinics/rural health centers.

By combining layers showing the governmental and nongovernmental health facilities that we work with, and the physical impact, we can focus our response on those points of access to healthcare that are serving the most affected communities. Using this geospatial information in conjunction with situation reports from the field enables us to more efficiently target our assistance.

Google also set up a cyclone relief donations page, backed by its Checkout service. Visitors may donate to Direct Relief International and to Unicef from the page to help relief efforts.

As Josh Mendelsohn wrote on the Official Google Blog, here’s what may matter most: "[W]e’ve created a Checkout Donations page so you can easily donate to UNICEF or Direct Relief International.  Both organizations are working to directly assist the victims on the ground in Myanmar."

 Google Does Its Part For Cyclone Victims

Five more well-intentioned entities are listed on the Google Grants Blog, and it’s a "Support victims of the cyclone in Myanmar (Burma)" message that showed up on Google.com.  "Donate" links are prominent on both pages.

Short of shipping over employees or money (both of which stockholders might miss), Google appears to be doing everything it can.  With that in mind, then, it seems reasonable that the LatLong Blog is offering an animation of Cyclone Nargis’s movement.  Weather buffs are sure to find it interesting, and Google Earth fans almost always enjoy new things.

For the record, the BBC reports that aid is beginning to arrive in Myanmar, but CNN is running scary new death toll estimates.