【1997 Archives】

Facebook997 Archivesrolling out a new feature to help blood donors, and the people who need it in India find each other.

On Oct. 1, India's National Blood Donor Day, Facebook will start prompting users to sign up as blood donors. People will see the prompt in their timelines, and can tag themselves as donors in their profiles, and choose to share this with friends.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable SEE ALSO: 'Jigsaw' film runs blood drive in protest of 'discriminatory' donation rules

In the weeks after, it'll then allow people or organisations seeking blood to create posts to request for it. The post can be geotargeted, so it pushes a notification to tagged donors who are nearer to the seeking party.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

When donors accept the request, organisations will be able to reach them privately via phone call, or Facebook's Messenger and WhatsApp platforms.

Mashable Trend Report Decode what’s viral, what’s next, and what it all means. Sign up for Mashable’s weekly Trend Report newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Facebook says this feature is serving a real need. India faces a blood shortage, where it has about 10 percent less donated than it needs. More than 38,000 donations are needed each day to address the deficit for the hundreds of millions of major surgeries that are carried out.

"People are using Facebook literally thousands of times a week to look for blood donors," Hema Budaraju, a Facebook product manager, told CNN.

The feature will first come to Android apps and the mobile web version, which are the ways most Indians interact with Facebook.

Facebook is inviting people in India to go to facebook.com/donateblood to sign up for the good cause.

---

Featured Video For You

---

Drones carried blood samples over the Arizona desert, and it could change the future of medicine

---

• Games
• Entertainment
• Social Good
• Shopping
• Tech
• Science
• Digital Culture
• Life

• Our Refugees
• Outlander recap: Season 3, episode 4 gives Jamie a shot at fatherhood
• Salesforce launches $50 million initiative to fuel social impact startups
• Tom Petty dies after being hospitalized for cardiac arrest
• Reverse Robin Hoods
• Salesforce launches $50 million initiative to fuel social impact startups
• Apple iPhone Payments is for people who hate wireless carriers
• Antarctica's massive Larsen C iceberg looks different in daylight
• Entitlements
• Cop rolls up on movie crew shooting armed robbery scene, and GULP

• Shocked capybara from 'Planet Earth II' is the internet's new hero
• The next frontier in wearables is helping couples conceive
• Niall Horan and Shawn Mendes team up for a necessary 'Mercy' duet
• Sabra recalls hummus that may make you sick
• 'Fantastic Beasts' can't conjure 'Harry Potter' magic at the box office
• Little boy proposes to his classmate with his mom's diamond ring
• Pissed off fans get refunds after disastrous Kanye West show
• Students only needed 36 hours to solve Facebook's fake news problem
• Comedian Chris Martin points out on Twitter he's not that other Chris Martin
• Netflix uses 'Black Mirror' concept device to promote binge watching

• The Most Disappointing PC Games of 2017
• Tom Petty, American rock 'n' roll everyman, dead at 66
• Microsoft is partnering with Samsung to build a 'mixed reality' empire
• Is 'Star Trek Discovery' worth subscribing to CBS All Access?
• Temporary Autonomous Taco Zones
• B&W launches its first wireless, noise
• Suddenly Google and Facebook are super interested in quality journalism
• Snapchat gives an unfiltered look at shock and aftermath of Las Vegas shooting
• WorryFree™ and Always on Script
• Walmart hones their same

• Social Media Forensics
• How Fox's 'The Exorcist' is changing the face of horror
• Facebook's data
• The Simpsons paid homage to Game of Thrones with Nikolaj Coster Waldau
• Operation Snowflake
• People are demanding that the Las Vegas attack be labeled as an act of terrorism
• Man tries to escape hotel bill by crossing a telephone wire over to the next building
• Yahoo now says all 3 billion of its accounts affected by security breach
• Who’s Afraid of Ocasio-Cortez?
• B&W launches its first wireless, noise