Street View History: Google Maps as a time machine
Street View History offers Google Maps users a journey back in time. The feature started in 2007 and exists for many different locations around the world. These can then be browsed virtually in a 360° perspective and compared with today's recordings. The time travel feature is not yet available for Germany, but for many cities and countries in Europe and around the world. In this way it is possible to find out what has changed in a certain period of time or which new buildings have been constructed.
How does time travel work with Street View History?
First you open a desired map section and click on the yellow person symbol to view the available Google-Show Street View routes. You can then use drag & drop to open a specific location. Whether historical for the respective location Pictures are present can be recognized by the clock symbol. This can be found in a small information box on the left. In the next step, a slider allows you to take the longed-for leap into the past.
First, a small preview image appears. If you click on the preview, the previous view appears. Of course, the time capsule can be closed again at any time and the virtual journey can be continued in the present. When entering the date, the program often jumps in time if no other images are available.
Since 2022, the time capsule function has also been gradually introduced on mobile devices, but not yet on Android. Before that, it was only accessible on PCs.
Advantages and benefits of Street View History
With Street View, not only can changes in the streetscape and the structural structure of different locations be tracked, as already mentioned. If the current picture is bad or covered by vehicles and trees, you can use this method to search for better pictures. This is especially true for busy places like Times Square in New York City or Piccadilly Circus in London.
The function can be used both for satellite images and for walking through the streets.
If you enter Google Maps, which is probably the most popular route planner on the Internet...
The situation is different for Germany, because there have been no Google Street View vehicles on the road for many years. The current recordings already serve as a small trip back in time 20 years ago. In other parts of the world, especially in urban areas, the vehicles are on the road regularly, allowing a detailed journey through the past few years and decades.
Curiously, this time capsule is still unknown to many Google users, although you can look at this one way, for example, can also understand how popular vacation spots are gradually changing have. Is the region booming or is it deserted? This is of interest not only to geographers and urban planners, but also to a broader public.
