Google Earth Adds Historical Street View Imagery for Time Travel Exploration

Google has introduced a new feature that allows users to access historical Street View imagery directly on Google Earth, a feature previously limited to Google Maps. This update, launched in celebration of Google Earth’s 20th anniversary, lets users explore historical imagery from a variety of perspectives, whether from a bird’s-eye view or at street level. The new functionality is designed to enhance the user experience and reflects a social media trend that saw people using Google Maps to ‘time travel’ and explore how places have changed over time. With this update, users can now virtually revisit locations and see how they’ve evolved over the years. Additionally, Google announced that professional users in the U.S. will gain access to new AI-powered insights on Google Earth, such as tree canopy coverage and land surface temperature data, which can inform urban planning. The company reflected on the history of Google Earth, highlighting its rapid growth after launching in 2005, achieving 100 million downloads within its first week. In the last year alone, people searched for places on Google Earth over 2 billion times.