Supples’ Pub

When Matthew Vienneau resolved to blog new leads in the disappearance of his sister, the impact was immediate. An influx of readers brought in after a link was submitted to Digg showed Matthew how to trace IP numbers to real-world addresses, helping pinpoint the Syria/Lebanon border town of Al Masra as the origin of Nicole’s last e-mail.

A subsequent web appeal moved Syrian locals to call around to hotels in the region. A world away in Toronto, after Matthew Vienneu blogged the hotel name volunteers had hit upon, another reader, a fellow Canadian traveler, offered to visit and look through Nicole’s luggage.

This story is amazing and perfectly illustrates the power of social media, hell the power of modern communication technology. No longer do you have to make long distance phone calls or send letters that takes days and even weeks to reach destinations - you blog it and the power of the community can do the rest.

Sadly there is no happy ending to this story just yet. But the Internet allowed this poor fellow to get even farther in his search than one would figure possible without a full detective force on site.

International Hunt for Missing Backpacker Harnesses Blog Power