MORE THAN SEVEN years worth of Google Street View images are now available to look at through Google Maps.
Starting from today, Google is allowing users to be able to go back in time and see how an area looked in the past, dating back as far as 2007.
Soon when you go into Street View, you will see a clock icon located at the top left-hand corner of the screen.
Clicking on it will bring up a slider which you can move to see that area in previous years (or different seasons depending on where you are) and allows you to see and track changes in an area such as buildings being constructed or experience different seasons in the same area.
In a post announcing the move, the Product Manager for Google Street View, Vinay Shet, described the feature as “a digital time capsule of the world.”, saying it acts like a digital timeline of recent history.
This new feature can also serve as a digital timeline of recent history, like the reconstruction after the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Onagawa, Japan. You can even experience different seasons and see what it would be like to cruise Italian roadways in both summer and winter.
How far back you can go depends on when Street View arrived in that country – it launched in Ireland back in 2010 so you’ll might get one or two updates at best – but for those who enjoy exploring different countries from the comfort of their own homes will have another new feature to play around with.
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