- Google Earth famous is the 20th anniversary this month
- He has just added a new historical functionality of the street view for time travel
- Professional users will also receive upgrades powered by AI to help town planning
Google Earth has just been 20 years old and the digital globe bought a functionality that could prove to be an addictive time – the historic view of the street.
Yes, we were able to travel in time in our previous cities and houses for years on Google Maps, but Google Earth looks like a natural house for functionality, given its more immersive 3D views and its satellite images. And from today, Google Earth now offers Street View with this historic menu bar.
This means that you can visit famous buildings and monuments (such as the ship building in New York above) and effectively watch their construction take place. To do this, find a location in Google Earth, drag the Pegman icon (bottom right) in the street, click on “See more dates” and use the film band menu to choose the year.
Around major cities and monuments, Street View images are updated so regularly now that their snapshots are often only months of intervals, but in most areas, they have renewed every two years. This opens up a major nostalgia potential, especially if the shots have frozen someone you know in time.
Give life to history
To celebrate the birthday of the earth, Google has also made calendars of its favorite historical aerial views, which aspire the satellite photos over several decades. This feature became available in the web and mobile versions of the Earth last year – to find it, go to the diapers and activate the decline in “historical imagery”.
A fascinating example is the air vision of the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral (above), which Google did exclusively for us. He shows the 1943 Gothic icon on his unhappy fire in 2019, followed by his recent reconstruction.
But other examples that Google has chosen include a view of Berlin, its post-war devastation to the Berlin Wall and its modern incarnation, as well as the amazing growth of Las Vegas and San Francisco during the decades.
There is a good chance that Google Earth sends me again in a rabbit burrow with these street view tips and historical images. But this also gives professional users new features focused on AI in “the coming weeks”, with features such as “coverage of the tree canopy” and thermal cards showing the terrestrial surface temperatures highlighting the potential of the land of urban planning of the earth.
It may suggest the treats propelled by future Gemini for non-professional US users in the future. But for the moment, I have more than enough treasure hunts linked to the earth to take care.