Travel back in time with Google Street View archive
Posted April 23, 2014 5:57 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
New condos — and more cranes — seem to be sprouting up along Toronto’s Lake Shore Boulevard every day. But is it really that much of an increase from seven years ago?
According to Google Street View, the answer is a clear yes.
Google launched its archive feature on Wednesday, allowing users to virtually travel back in time — as far as 2007 — to see how a place has changed.
“One of the most profound examples is development,” Aaron Brindle, spokesperson for Google Canada told CityNews. “In Toronto, you can virtually drive down Lake Shore Blvd. using the tool and see the cranes going up over time, sprouting up from holes in the ground.”
“In 2007, the cutting-edge technology displayed on a billboard in New York City was a flip phone. Two years later it was a smartphone,” Brindle explained.
It’s not available for all locations. The locations are chosen simply based on where Google has collected imagery more than once. Street View has been to 52 countries.
If a clock icon appears on a Street View image, users can toggle through time to see the same place in different years or previous seasons.
The feature is still being rolled out and should be fully launched by the end of the week.
“In some ways this is a virtual time capsule that allows you to go to a place and in some cases a time to actually reflect on changes you’ve seen in development, the impacts of natural disasters and amazing cultural evolutions that happened over time,” Brindle said.
Google has released photos of Toronto’s changing skyline, as well as cherry blossoms in Japan and the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey.
Before and after pictures of the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey. GOOGLE STREET VIEW.
Cherry blossoms in bloom in Kyoto, Japan. GOOGLE STREET VIEW.
What’s the first area you explored? Let us know in the comments section below.
