Google launches new time machine feature in Street View

23 Apr 2014

Google has introduced a new time machine feature in its Google Maps with Street View that allows users to step back in time to see how a street has changed since 2007.

Google describes the collections of images as a digital time capsule for the world.

The feature, which works in Street View for desktop, shows a clock in the upper left hand portion of an image if photos going back to 2007 are available.

In this way it is possible to see the progress of the construction of the Freedom Tower in New York City or the 2014 World Cup Stadium in Fortaleza, Brazil.

The new feature can also serve as a digital timeline of recent history, in depicting the reconstruction after the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Onagawa, Japan, for instance.

Users can even experience different seasons and see what it would be like to cruise Italian roadways in both summer and winter.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com