Time Travel Coming to Google Earth
Google has announced forthcoming updates to its satellite imagery platform, Google Earth, which will enable users to view satellite and aerial images dating back up to 80 years. This new feature will essentially allow users to “travel back in time.”
In the update announcement, Google detailed that cities such as London, Berlin, Warsaw, and Paris will have historical imagery dating back to the 1930s. Presently, the earliest available images for most locations on Google Earth are only a few decades old. The upcoming updates will significantly extend this time frame.
Google Earth will allow users to explore and compare historical photos with current ones. For example, Google provided a comparison of San Francisco in 1938 with that in 2024 to illustrate the changes in the region’s geography. In the 1938 photos, San Francisco’s ports were primarily used for shipping, while recent images show the same locations filled with restaurants and cruise ships.
This feature will be accessible for Google Earth users on both web and mobile platforms. According to Google’s developer blog, these updates are expected to roll out in the “upcoming weeks.” Additionally, Google announced the expansion of Street View on Google Maps to nearly 80 countries and improvements in image quality on both Google Earth and Google Maps through new AI models designed to enhance the sharpness of the imagery.