Google Earth Goes Wayback Machine
Google Earth dug up some sweet historical imagery, dating back to 1945 in some areas! Web surfers can see how their watering holes and stomping grounds have changed over time. Not only that, young an old alike will take a new appreciation for things like seeing industrial revolution, birth of ballparks, stadiums and other now famous venues.
As authored by the *trustworthy* Wikipedia, Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographic information program that was originally called Earth Viewer. Created by Keyhole, Inc, a company acquired by Google in 2004, now has really changed the way we get directions, but houses, and go deep sea diving. It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS 3D globe. This is something that will come in handy in any war, talk about knowing your opponents location or lay of the land!
To access historical imagery, do one of the following within the Google Earth application. 1) Click View > Historical Imagery or 2) Click the Clock icon in the toolbar above the 3D viewer. The small vertical lines on the timeline indicate the dates of different imagery available for your location. Now all you need to do is find that special place where you grew up, went to college, or had that great summer.
Looking at my neighborhood in Central California, I realized the seriously massive amount of development that occurred in the early 1990s, as agricultural fields of family friends suddenly became covered with houses, schools, and strip malls. In fact one neighborhood, now stands with names like Danny Drive and Dawn Drive off of Famasi Avenue. These are real people I grew up with and attended 4-H meetings with so a little strange to say the least.
Check it out: http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/ug_gps.html#historicalimagery
