Google Earth celebrates its 20th anniversary with historical street view and new AI insights
Over the last 20 years, Google Earth has let us explore the globe via billions of images from aerial photography, satellite imagery, Street View and 3D images.
The globe explorer debuted a few months after Google Maps but is more than just a way to get you from point A to point B.
Google claims that in the last year alone, Google Earth has been searched over 2 billion times.
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Google Earth is getting a pair of new features; one you can use now and another meant for pro users that will rollout in the coming weeks.
To access the historical view in Google Earth go to Layers and scroll down in that sub menu where there is a layer called "Historical imagery." That's for the aerial and satellite imagery, though it gets quite blurry pre-2000 depending on where you look.
In Street View you can go to a location and toggle with an arrow on the top icon to see how things have changed.
Google highlighted some big moments from the last 20 years in a blog post celebrating its birthday.
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It launched in 2005 and ended up being a tool used with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that aided people after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
Scientists and researchers used the tool to find or identify fossil sties, habitat changes and even ancient buildings.
The first historical feature launched in 2017 with Google Earth Timelapse which lets you see how areas changed over a 35 year period.
It got more useful for professionals in the last couple of years with datasets tools and tours.
Historical imagery came to Google Earth in 2024.
It's a great tool for exploring the world and now with the history expansion, seeing how things have changed from urban growth and decay to climate change and beyond.
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