Time Travel With Google

Google has introduced a new Maps feature today. This feature lets users travel back in time the Google way. By clicking on the small clock icon when looking up a Google Maps address, users can see what an area of the world looked like many years ago. You could, for example, see what the New York City timeline looked like in 2008.

The time travel feature only goes back to the year 2007 when Google Maps was first developed, but the changes in architecture since that time are really amazing – especially if you view the differences in a major city like New York.

How to Access the Time Travel Feature

Google Map’s new time travel feature only works on desktop and laptops right now. To use the feature, enter an address into Google Maps. From there, you can use the scrollbar to see the various changes in landscape over the past seven years. For most, this feature is simply interesting, but it’s also incredibly useful for students, architects, and anyone that has a vested interest in the details of the past.

Google Maps is simple to use, and the time travel feature is just as simple. The point of the new feature is to show people what the world looked like just a few years ago. You can even view the changes in a landscape that have happened over the past year or so. In many cases, that landscape may not change too much. When it comes to towns and cities that change frequently thanks to natural disasters or development (even over-development) that change can be huge.

From the Ground Up

Users can also see the change in a building from the ground up. Users can see recent structures from the point of non-existence (or groundbreaking) to the structure that exists today. By using the scrollbar and pausing at points, you can really see how a building was created. Google’s new feature is mostly novelty, but it’s the first time that Google has created an alternate version of Google Maps, and it’s a version that is really fun to play with.

The new Google Maps time travel feature is available right now, so don’t hesitate to see what the world looked like a few years ago, what it looks like now, view how buildings were created from start to finish, and even see the disappearance of green space (it is the week of Earth Day, after all) throughout major cities and other popular areas. You may find some of these views incredibly humbling, sometimes sad, and other times just fascinating.

What will you do with the new Google Maps feature? Travel back in time? See what buildings no longer exist? Take a look at how things were built? There are so many possibilities here, but very few reasons not to check out this feature if you have a few extra minutes. As far as pioneering the world goes, Google takes center stage for better or for worse.