It's hard to decide with what cliché to open-if we don't learn from history we are destined to repeat it, something about a flux capacitor or maybe an hourglass analogy about the sands of time. Either way, humans have been fascinated by time and history, and from cave paintings to encyclopedias, we try to document the journey.



Google is no exception. Earlier this month the search giant released a new feature to the Street View section of its mapping program. Street View came about after users wanted a more realistic view. Satellite images are nice, but it is hard to get a real sense of depth and structure. Street view allows you to act like you are standing at the very address you are searching. The new feature will let you time travel as you are standing there as well.

Dating back seven years, the new Street View feature will let you see the exact landscape at which you are looking, only many years before. You can see how different areas have been developed, what buildings have been torn down, refurbished or constructed. Ever plant a tree and curious to see how it is doing almost a decade later? This enhancement will allow you to do that.

To access the new feature, Google released an announcement stating, "If you see a clock icon in the upper left-hand portion of a Street View image, click on it and move the slider through time and select a thumbnail to see that same place in previous years or seasons."

With a simple slide you can rehash your life from seven years ago or just gaze into the inevitability of change.

 

Sources: Google.com