• November 1, 2012

Google said Thursday it added AMBER Alerts to its services. Searchers using Google Search or Maps on desktop and mobile will see an AMBER Alert when searching for related information in a particular location where a child has recently been abducted and an alert issued.

The alert also will serve up when conducting a targeted search related to the situation. "By increasing the availability of these alerts through our services, we hope that more people will assist in the search for children featured in AMBER Alerts, and that the rates of safe recovery will rise," Phil Coakley, software engineer, Google Public Alerts team, wrote in a blog post.

Google coordinated the service with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as part of its Google Public Alerts platform designed to provide relevant emergency alerts.