Google has joined hands with the UN and developed a new website that aims to educate people about Syria and the refugee crisis of the country through the data that has been combined from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The new website called "Searching for Syria" will contain satellite imagery, 360-degree photos and stills, videos, stories from refugees, and more to make people better understand the situation of Syria. This website will provide all the information to the users in a more accusable way and will also provide simple but visually immersive answers to questions like "what is happening in Syria?", "what is a refugee and so on.
Google explained that it has been able to gauge the worldwide interest regarding this topic from the amount of people using its search engine to know about Syria. For example, one of the top trending searches that had taken place throughout Germany, France and the U.K. last year was "what is happening in Syria?". Tens of millions of people have searched for information on Syria in 2016.
The tech giant has teamed up with UNHCR to combine the organization's annual Global Trends report with Google's Search trend data. The Global Trends report basically contains all the facts and figures about refugees, asylum-seekers, migrants and others.
Answers are provided on the website in the form of short text blurbs that contain facts and statistics and also full-screen photos, some of which can be turned 360 degrees for a more immersive viewing of a given place or scene.
Charts, graphs, along with personal stories from the refugees and YouTube videos have also been incorporated in the website.
"Searching for Syria" not only provides answers but also encourages visitors to learn about how they can help, like they can sign the UNHCR's petition to pledge their support that they stand #WithRefugees, they can make donations, or can just share the website to raise awareness.
This is undoubtedly a noble and welcome effort by Google to aid the crisis, but this not the first time that Google has taken a step to address the Syria refugee crisis. The tech giant has already invested more than $20 million in grants supporting solutions to provide 800,000 refugees with emergency support and access to information and education, said Google.
