Google shows us the world of 80 years ago

Imagine being able to observe the world 80 years ago. You probably weren’t even there and just remembering our childhood is often an arduous task. He gives us a hand Googlewhich thanks to Earth offers, with a very new updatethe possibility of virtually traveling to some of the most important cities in the world to see how they have changed over time through aerial and satellite photos. An overview of large centers such as London, Paris, Berlin or Warsawwhich they illustrate perfectly the situation before and after the Second World War and evolution over the following decades.

Traveling through time to observe how the soil has changed

This journey back in time will initially be available in some cities around the world (London, Berlin, Warsaw and Paris are already covered) and will then be extended to the rest of the globe. Users can use this new feature to see what their neighborhoods and cities looked like 80 years ago. For example, those who live in Milan or Rome will be able to travel back in time starting from 1945, observing the cities devastated by bombingpassing through the economic boom and building development, up to the present day. For some cities it will even be possible to go back to the 1930s. This addition enhances the feature known as Timelapse, designed specifically to scroll through the various images taken over the years.

This sort of time machine will allow us to observe not only cities, but also how they have changed forests, lakes and rural areas, all influenced by human activity and climate change. In Google’s intentions, the new function is not just intended to be entertainment for the curious, but above all a powerful awareness tool, showing everyone the upheavals that the climate crisis has caused over the last hundred years. A function that could be used not only for educational purposes, but also by urban planners and historians to monitor and study changes in the territory and society.

How to activate time lapse on Google Earth

London, Paris and San Francisco are some of the cities where, thanks to Google Earth’s Time Lapse update, it is possible to step back in time 80 years. For Italy it is currently possible to obtain a Time Lapse only from 1984 to todayaccessing the browser version. To activate it, you need to select «View» in the top menu and then click on «Layers».

Other new features of Google Earth

Google has announced other important news. One of them is the expansion of Google Street View to 80 new countriesa very popular service that now collects 280 billion photos taken at a “human” level thanks to Google Cars, equipped with 360-degree panoramic cameras, recently updated and made lighter. This update, one of the most significant ever, includes new countries such as Bosnia with its medieval villages, desert areas near cities in Namibia, river regions in Paraguay and castles in Liechtenstein. Another innovation concerns the use ofartificial intelligence to improve satellite images by effectively eliminating clouds and shadows, thanks to the advanced AI model Cloud Score+.