Google Adds 'Time Travel' Feature to Street View

See how a location has changed over the past seven years using Google's new time capsule feature.

Google is turning back time with a new Street View feature that shows users how a place has changed over the years.

By adding historical imagery from past collections dating back to 2007, the search giant has created a digital time capsule of the world.

"Now with Street View, you can see a landmark's growth from the ground up, like the Freedom Tower in New York City or the 2014 World Cup Stadium in Fortaleza, Brazil," Street View product manager Vinay Shet wrote in a blog post.

The new feature also serves as a digital timeline of recent history, he said, pointing to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Onagawa, Japan (pictured).

Look for a clock icon in the upper left corner of a Street View panorama, and you can move a slider to see how your neighborhood has changed over the last seven years. Skim through the timeline to find a particular moment in history, then click it to open a full-screen view.

"You can even experience different seasons and see what it would be like to cruise Italian roadways in both summer and winter," Shet said.

The feature did not appear to be live for those of us here at PCMag, but the global rollout could take some time to reach everyone.

Alongside the time-travel feature, today's update boosts Street View to 12 million miles worth of interactive photos, according to the Wall Street Journal.

This time lapse function will offer two or three "time slices" in most Street View locations; major metro areas will include 20 or more, Google Maps Street View director of engineering Luc Vincent told the Journal.

Time travel is currently restricted only to the desktop version of Street View.

"Forget going 88 mph in a DeLorean—you can stay where you are and use Google Maps to virtually explore the world as it is—and as it was," Shet said. "Happy (time) traveling!"

It turns out Google's mapping technology, which recently added Cambodia's Angkor Wat, is good for more than an armchair holiday. Last week, researchers stumbled upon a flaw in CAPTCHA challenge-response tests which can be exploited using a new Street View algorithm.