Gadgetory

Facebook expands safety check and Google rewards you for reviewing restaurants I am Bridget Carey this is your see net update facebook says it's going to activate its safety check tool in times of crisis that go beyond natural disasters Facebook turned on the tool for people in Paris during Friday's terrorist attacks but many have criticized the network for not doing this sooner for other attacks most notably the bombings that occurred one day earlier in Beirut the capital of Lebanon safety check is a way to tell everyone you know on Facebook that you're safe during a disaster if you're located in the vicinity of an ongoing event Facebook pops up a message asking if you're safe you hit yes and your friends all get notified that you're okay so could Facebook have turned this on sooner yeah of course and it probably should have but it took the disaster in Paris for Facebook to have the conversation about it with its employees on the ground and so for the first time safety check was used for something other than a natural disaster the feature began back in 2011 during the Fukushima nuclear disaster and tsunami in Tokyo it's also been used for areas hit by major earthquakes and storms many Facebook users we're also sharing concerns over the new option to change your profile picture to show the French flag people were doing this as a symbol of solidarity for the country it's the social media equivalent of wearing a ribbon or wristband but we have not seen such options on Facebook to support other countries going through turmoil it makes it seem to some like Facebook is selective and what it cares about and out of touch with other countries in the meantime there are tools to do this affect yourself one free tool is through the website Luna pick calm you can select multiple flags as filters over your photo and another Facebook news the social network is starting to test the waters with paid stickers you know how you can send those little cartoon drawings to express your feelings well stickers on Facebook and messenger have always been free but now there's a new add-on app to messenger it's called Pico candy and some of its sticker packs cost a dollar or two but seriously you do not need to resort to paying for anything if you want to add something unique to your messages just use an animated gift search tool they're always free and fun you can find lots of these at in the more options button meanwhile Google is offering one terabyte of free online drive storage space as an incentive to people who want to write restaurant reviews and make other contributions to Google Maps to start getting perks you have to sign up as a local guide reviewer a terabyte of space on Google normally cost $10 a month however you would have to review about 40 locations a month to even earn that free storage and that's a lot of eating out that's it for this tech news update and there's more as cnet.com from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey