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Although search engines can be used to look up songs' names, and with Facebook, you can keep track of your friends' antics, search and social media can serve more important functions, too.  And at SES San Jose, a session focused on using these resources to find missing persons.

Coverage of the SES San Jose conference continues at WebProNews Videos.  Stay with WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.

Lieutenant Robert H. Rahn (retired), who used to work as a homicide detective and is now the president and director of investigations at Management Resources, started things off.  He pointed out that making the public aware of missing persons cases is extremely important because fresh interest can often translate into new leads.

Kathleen Fealy, the president of KF Multimedia & Web, Inc., later agreed.  But she highlighted the many problems that people who want to help can face.  Consider the lack of a common portal, for instance; this makes it hard to know where to upload or look for information.  On Facebook alone, folks create causes, fan pages, and groups.

Then, Lisa Buyer, who's the president and CEO of The Buyer Group, wrapped up the session by talking about an admirably coordinated effort.  A website featuring optimized content was created for Tiffany Sessions, along with a Facebook fan page, a blog, and Twitter and YouTube accounts.  This has resulted in the show "48 Hours" covering her story, and lots of new information has surfaced.

On a related note, we'd like to remind you about the search for Robert Botts, which is taking some similar turns.