Although social media channels have been skint in terms of coverage of today’s 7.1 earthquake in China, Google has just launched a People Finder app in an attempt to aid victims of the disaster.

A massive earthquake hit northwest China’s Qinghai Province early this morning, killing more than 500 and injuring more than 10,000, according to the American Red Cross. Ninety percent of the houses in the region collapsed.

However, if you were to go to Twitter or YouTube now, you would find nary a citizen video or TwitPic of the event unfolding (we’ve contacted both YouTube and Twitter to be sure, but our own searches turned up nothing).

The reason behind this dearth of content is quite obvious: Google and China fell out back in January due to privacy issues, and services like Twitter are currently blocked in the country.

In recent years, social media breaking the news with regard to uprisings and natural disasters has become a common occurrence. The protests following the Iran election hit Twitter before mainstream news outlets, and TwitPics of the Haitian earthquake flooded Twitter immediately after the quake hit — the same with YouTube videos of the destruction caused by the Baja California earthquake.

Footage like this often serves as a call to action. It remains to be seen what effect this lack of coverage will have on relief efforts. Google has stepped up the plate — interestingly enough, given its current relationship with China — as have a few other organizations, which we’re listing below. Please feel free to add more in the comments.

Direct Relief International

AmeriCares

The American Red Cross

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Tags: china, china earthquake, Google, News, twitpic, twitter, youtube

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