Time Travel with Street View

Over the next few days the new look Google Maps is rolling out a new feature to all users, which will allow you to travel back in time with Street View.

Now when you browse Street View on Google Maps you might spot a clock icon in the upper left-hand corner of the Street View image. When you click on the clock you will be able to browse through and view historical Street View images that Google has since updated.



Using this new feature you will be able to view buildings as they grow or visit locations which have recently been hit by natural disasters (such as L'Aquila in Italy or Onagawa, Japan) and view before and after Street View images from the selected location.

Google has experimented before with allowing users to revisit older and since updated Street View imagery. After the Japanese earthquake and tsunami Google Japan released Memories for the Future, which allows you to compare pre and post earthquake Street View imagery for much of northern Japan.