Website Review: Globalincidentmap.com

With today's state of current events, it can get easy for an average person like you and me to get lost in the news when it comes to terrorism-related events. We tend to get saturated with terror information to the point where we are de-sensitized when we hear the words "terror", "explosion", and "al Qaeda". But what if something happened near your hometown; wouldn't you like to know?

I found a website that can help you see the latest incidents that could be terror-related. It's called globalincidentmap.com. Globalincidentmap.com presents a map of the latest 25 incidents that could be deemed terror-related. Each incident that occurs is displayed by a distinct icon on a Google-powered map. These icons include markers for suspicious devices, bus hijackings, airport incidents, and suspicious persons.

When you click on the icon it brings up a link of the local news report concerning the incident. Now, not every incident that occurs is a direct link to terrorism, but they are reported. Not every incident is necessarily reported, either, because the people who run globalincidentmap.com get their information from local news sources. More recent events occur on a scrolling ticker in the middle of the screen.

The utilization of local news makes reporting incidents much faster than waiting for CNN to report breaking news. For instance, I live about 30 miles from Contra Costa County, where a suspicious device was planted at a Shell refinery station. I didn't see this on the local or national news but that could have a huge impact on me if I had decided to travel to San Francisco or San Jose that day.

And just as the site name says, it's "Global". Globalincidentmap.com can also show you all around the world what incidents are taking place. Comes in handy if you are a world traveler and you were thinking about taking a trip to Europe. Globalincidentmap.com can tell you about airport delays and evacuations that are taking place, such as the one at Los Angeles airport last week where someone tried to pass two unexploded mortar shells through customs.

Just as each type of incident has its own icon, each type of incident is also further broken down towards the bottom of the page. This is useful when you are looking for a specific event and want to know the latest update.

I would highly recommend using this site especially if you travel frequently or have a long commute to work. Terror-like incidents happen every day and unfortunately no town, airport, or rail station can be ruled out as a possible location for the next one.