Shaking, rattling and rolling - Quickly getting the scoop on what and where that future quake was with the new “earthquake” search from Google and the USGS

The Official Google Blog - Shaking up earthquake searches

“Silicon Valley is well known as the home of technology companies like Google, but it's also one of many regions around the world with frequent earthquake activity. When we in the Bay Area feel an earthquake, we want to know how strong it was and where it occurred, as soon as possible. After all, even a small vibration could be the result of a severe earthquake far away. Traditionally, we've had to wait for answers as reporters scrambled to investigate and spread the news. But thanks to the US Geological Survey (USGS), we can get earthquake data straight from the source.

Now, when you search for "earthquakes" on Google, you'll get information on some of the most recent, significant earthquakes from around the world, right on the search results page. From there, you can click through to the USGS Earthquake Center for more information, or visit the epicenter of any quake on Google Maps. To find earthquakes closer to home, you can add a location to your query, for example: "earthquakes California.

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Nice!

Every time there’s an earthquake I end up hunting around for the information, links to the USGS, etc. With this new Google search feature I can now VERY easily get the information I need quickly. Saving this on my phone now…

Let’s hope we don’t really need this though in the near future… :|