Facebook joins hunt for missing kids with Amber Alerts.

Computerworld - In an effort to find missing
children faster, Facebook will deliver Amber Alerts
to its users.
Facebook users in all 50 U.S. states, Washington
D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands can
now sign up to receive Amber Alerts for their
state as part of their news feed.
With the new service, which went into effect on
Wednesday, users will also be able to share the
alerts with their Facebook friends.
"Everyone at Facebook feels a responsibility to
help protect children and, as a former federal
prosecutor and a father of two, I am particularly
proud that we are now part of the Amber Alert
program," said Chris Sonderby, Lead Security
and Investigations Counsel at Facebook.
"We are hopeful that today's announcement
offers these dedicated officials another useful tool
to find and safely recover abducted children,"
Sonderby said.
The announcement came on Wednesday during
a joint press conference with Facebook, the U.S.
Department of Justice and the National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children.
The news also came out the day before the 15th
anniversary of the abduction and murder of 9-
year-old Amber Hagerman, who became the
namesake of the national Amber Alert Program.
By teaming up with Facebook, which surpassed
Google as the most visited Web site in the U.S. in
2010, the Amber Alert program has the potential
to reach a very large audience. Last July,
Facebook announced that it had a worldwide user
base of half a billion people.
"That's a nice thing FaceBook is doing," said Ezra
Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business
Research. "It has some potential. It's probably not
that great on short-term emergencies, but a lot of
people spend a lot of time with Facebook --
certainly more than looked at the back of milk
cartons, back in the day."

Source: Http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9204841/Facebook_joins_hunt_for_missing_kids_with_Amber_Alerts