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1

It's from twitter.

hetusa: 福岡県筑後、羽犬塚から行方不明になっていた叔母(73才)が発見された、と知らせがありました。
itoi_shigesato: よかった。
hetusa: ありがとうございました

My feeling is that it says something like 'just so'.

Also, it common to respond to よかった with gratitude?

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3 Answers

up vote 12 down vote accepted

よかった means that the speaker was glad that the lost person was found.

I'm not sure that ありがとうございました is a direct response to よかった, rather it's expressing gratitude for the other person showing concern about the lost person.

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up vote 2 down vote

You would probably want to know that よかった is the accomplished form of [良]{よ/い}い that you know from simple sentences like いいです. This word did not came out of nowhere.

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up vote 5 down vote

よかった is used here to express a feeling of relief ( Thank goodness! ).
Intonation is important for this use: ああ、よかった!

Some situations where you can use the expression:
- you lose the wallet but you find it
- nobody is hurt in a traffic accident
- the goalkeeper of your soccer team stops a penalty kick

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1  
I am not sure what you mean by “Intonation is important for this use: ああ、よかった!” The intonation is always important to some extent, but I do not know if the intonation is particularly important with the sentence “よかった.” Also, I do not know which intonation you are referring to by writing “ああ、よかった!” – Tsuyoshi Ito Feb 16 '12 at 1:27
Intonation does not change its meaning. – oldergod Feb 16 '12 at 2:47

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