To mark 20 years of Google Earth, the tech giant just added a much-requested feature– historical Street View.
Users have been able to peek into the past on Google Maps for a while. However, this is the first time Google Earth is getting that same time-travel ability.
The new tool builds on a trend from last year, when people used Google Maps to find old snapshots of homes, landmarks, or even loved ones who had passed.
Now, with this update, all of that can be done from within Google Earth, too.
How it works
If you want to try it out, it’s pretty simple. Just open Google Earth, drop the little yellow Pegman (he’s in the bottom right), and choose a location.
Once you’re on the street, click “see more dates,” and use the film strip that pops up to choose a year. From there, you can scroll through snapshots and watch a city, building, or monument change over time.
You might not know this, but Google integrated Street View into Google Earth back in 2008. That means the new time-travel feature builds on over a decade of street‑level exploration
Besides time travel, Google also announced that professional users in the U.S. will get access to new AI-driven insights through Google Earth. That includes data on things like urban tree canopy coverage—useful for city planners and environmental researchers trying to track climate-related changes.
Launched in 2005, Google Earth became a viral hit almost instantly, racking up 100 million downloads in its first week. Two decades later, people are still using it to explore the world—more than 2 billion searches were logged in the past year alone.
According to Google, this latest update is just another way they’re trying to help people understand the world better—from above, at street level, or through time.
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