The internet showed yet another side to its usefulness this week when a young couple in Seattle, USA, were reunited with their camera which they lost in Iceland.

The story began at Reykjavík Domestic Airport last week. A young Icelandic woman found a digital camera on a bench and its owner was nowhere to be found. She decided to upload the photographs on the camera to her Facebook profile with a request for all her friends to share the photos with their other friends.

“My cousin found the camera at Reykjavík Airport on Thursday 22nd March 2012,” the album description read. “The newest pictures were taken in Reykjavík.”

The camera also contained several photographs taken in the USA, Vísir.is reported.

Icelandic Facebook users joined hands and spread the information on the worldwide web. The initiative eventually made the Icelandic media.

From there several imaginative users shared the story on Reddit, where it took on a new dimension. One other user opened up a chat thread advertising for the owner of the photos.

The thread had some 700 replies – including one from somebody who knew the girl in the photos. She was his neighbour in Seattle.

He sent her a message on Facebook alerting her to the photo album, she then contacted the original finders in Reykjavík and the rest, as they say, is history.