Google Earth Turns 20 With A Blast From The Past And A Fresh Dose Of A

Leo Migdal

-Dec 14, 2025, 1:27 PM

google earth turns 20 with a blast from the past and a fresh dose of a

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Google Earth turns 20 and rolls out a virtual time machine, so you can swipe through years of Street View memories right in the app. You can now rewind Street View right inside Google Earth to see how places looked years ago. A handful of AI-powered tools is rolling out to Google Earth, letting users analyze tree cover, track urban heat, and plan cooler, greener cities. Google Earth has turned 20, marking two decades of the service letting us spin the globe on our screens. And to celebrate its 20th birthday, Google Earth is rolling out a nostalgic update: historical Street View, now baked right into the Earth experience.

We’re taking a look back at the major launches, moments and milestones that made Google Earth what it is today. Google Earth is celebrating 20 years of helping people explore the world. You can now access historical Street View imagery within Google Earth. Professionals can also use new features to evaluate building designs and access city-level insights. Google Earth is 20 years old and it helps people see the world. It has lots of pictures from planes, satellites, and even the street.

People use it to learn about the Earth and help their communities. Now, you can even see old Street View pictures on Google Earth. Okay, here are three haiku summarizing the Google Earth article, mentioning relevant Google products and services: Earth turns twenty now, Google Earth, Street View expands, History unfolds. Discover how you can work with Google Earth by exploring the projects that geospatial developers have built and shared with the world. Cities around the world are growing rapidly.

See how different regions are handling increasing urban populations. Discover the wonders found under the sea.Underwater Earth and The Ocean Agency After the sun goes down, there’s more to explore.Nasa Understand Londoners' exposure to air pollution.Environmental Defense Fund Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.

YouTube isn’t the only one celebrating its 20-year anniversary; Google Earth has been around for just as long. To celebrate the two-decade milestone, Google Earth is getting a feature for viewing the past and another that will provide insights about the planet. Back in 2014, Google rolled out a feature called historical street view in Maps for desktop. This feature gathers street views from past collections to show you how a place has changed over the years. While it has long been a staple for Maps, the company has announced that this feature is now also available on Google Earth. The video below shows an example of how the city of Houston has changed over the years.

In addition to historical street view, Google Earth will also be launching AI-driven insights in the coming weeks. Unlike historical street view, this feature is only for professional users in the US. If you’re a professional user, you’ll be able to use this feature to access new datasets about the planet. For example, you could use the tool to learn about tree canopy coverage for cities, showing which parts of the city have the most shade. Knowing which areas would benefit the most from a cooling solution could help with urban planning. Thank you for being part of our community.

Read our Comment Policy before posting. Google Earth just hit a big milestone, its 20th birthday on June 10, and to celebrate, Google is adding a fun and fascinating new feature: historical Street View imagery. This means you can now see how neighborhoods and places looked in different years, basically taking a virtual trip back in time. This feature first showed up on Google Maps last year, and now it’s making its way to Google Earth’s 3D globe, making the experience even more immersive. With this update, you can easily switch between different time periods to see how a spot has changed. Whether you want to zoom out for a bird’s eye view or stroll down the street level, this tool lets you watch the years roll by.

Imagine revisiting your childhood home, watching a city grow, or tracking how forests and lakes have evolved over time. On Google Maps, the historical images go back as far as 80 years, and now Google Earth brings that same magic with a fresh, interactive spin. For 20 years we’ve been asking…What. Why. How. When.

Where #onEarth? It started with a globe and you took it from there. #onEarth https://t.co/ZtT4sbIeh7 pic.twitter.com/UVQEKPFKbU— Google Earth (@googleearth) June 24, 2025 But this feature isn’t just about nostalgia or fun. Google points out that it’s also a powerful tool for scientists and researchers studying how our planet is changing. Seeing how places have transformed over decades can shed light on things like climate change, deforestation, and urban growth, helping us understand how human activities affect the Earth.

There’s more on the horizon too. Soon, Google Earth Pro users will get AI-powered insights, thanks to Google’s new Gemini technology. This will let people ask natural questions about Earth, like how much tree coverage there is in a region, and get clear, easy-to-understand answers based on Google Earth’s massive data collection. It’s like having a smart assistant for geography right at your fingertips. I bet you haven’t heard about Google Earth in a while, but the service is still alive and kicking. Today, Google Earth turns 20, and to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Google is letting you turn back the clock to see how your favorite spot or hometown has evolved over the years.

The company shared a blog post talking about Google Earth’s two-decade-long journey. They are also introducing two new features to the service. The first one is called Historical imagery, which lets you take a look at the past and see what a place used to look like years back, and how it has evolved. You can pick a spot anywhere around the globe and slide back to the past. I tried the feature out on the Google Earth app, and it allowed me to explore my hometown and how it used to look in 1985. You can go back even further, depending on the spot that you are exploring.

Other than that, Google will also introduce AI-driven insights to Google Earth in the coming weeks. This will help professionals with new datasets on the planet, where they can use a tool to check the tree coverage of an area, surface temperature, and rooftop reflectivity. However, this feature could be limited to the experts in the US. I remember using Google Earth a lot when I was in middle school to explore different regions around the world. It’s hard to believe the service has stuck this long and didn’t end up in Google’s graveyard. I hope its journey continues for another 20 years to help curious minds like mine learn more about our planet.

Plus, a look at history from a bird's eye view When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Over the last 20 years, Google Earth has enabled us to explore the globe through 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.

Google Earth Turns 20 With A Blast From The Past And A Fresh Dose Of A

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