Google's 'Street View' maps add digital time capsules to
provide visual retrospectives
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Trips down memory lane are now
available on Google's digital maps.
The new twist on time travel is debuting Wednesday as part
of the "Street View" feature in Google's maps, a navigational tool
that attracts more than 1 billion visitors each month.
Street View snapshots will now include an option to see what
neighborhoods and landmarks looked like at different periods in the last seven
years, as Google Inc. has been dispatching camera-toting cars to take
street-level pictures for its maps.
Google Inc. intends to keep adding pictures to the digital
time capsules as its photo-taking cars continue to cruise the same streets
gathering updates.
"As time goes by, many of these images are going to
become vintage," predicted Vinay Shet, a Google product manager who
oversaw the company's glimpse into the past. "We want our maps to be
comprehensive as we build a digital mirror of the world."
Like everything else on Google's map, the time-tripping
option is free. Google makes money off its maps from advertising, so the
Mountain View, Calif., company is constantly coming up with new attractions to
keep people coming back.
Even though the photos only date back to 2007, some of them
illustrate dramatic changes. Some photos show how neighborhoods in cities like
Tohoku, Japan looked before and after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck in
March 2011. Others show the gradual recovery of New Orleans neighborhoods in
the years following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Scrolling over to
Washington D.C. will provide a look at the restoration of the historic Howard
Theatre in the nation's capital.
In New York, the Street View map presents a string of photos
illustrating the changing skyline as the Freedom Tower at the World Trade
Center was built. Even looking at the evolution of Times Square during the past
seven years can evoke nostalgic feelings while gazing at a giant billboard
advertising a flip-style cellphone in 2007.
The visual retrospectives aren't available throughout
Google's maps, although Shet says there should be at least one look back in
time for just about every neighborhood that can be viewed through the Street
View format.
Google's new feature is displaying more photos of major city
centers over time than suburban streets because the company's camera-bearing
cars return to densely populated areas more frequently.
Adding the photos from the past will roughly double the
total imagery in Street View once the rollout is completed in the next two
days. Google declined to say how many pictures are already in Street View,
which spans 55 countries. The look-back feature will be available in all but
three of those countries: Germany and Switzerland, where government regulations
restrict Google's use of the past images, and South Africa, where technical
problems have slowed the feature's rollout.
When a retrospective is available in Street View, a small
clock appears in the left corner of the current picture of a location. Clicking
on the clock produces a visual portal into different time periods.
The trips can be emotional. For instance, Street View's
scenes often include people who happened to be in the frame when Google's cars
took the picture. Over time, some of these people will die and Google expects
those pictures will have special meaning for survivors and other descendants.
Some Street View pictures posted through the years have also
upset people who were captured in activities or visiting places that they
wanted to keep private. Google now blurs the images of people who contact the
company asking to be shielded from Street View. Masking will be available on
the older photos too, Shet said, even if it's just because a person didn't like
the way he or she looked a few years ago.
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