The Google Blog announced yesterday that Google Earth now has the ability to take you back through time so that you can easily compare the current land and layout with how it was hundreds of years ago. For most people this may not be something that you use on a daily basis but can you imagine how cool this would have been when you were just a little kid learning about maps and how they have changed over the course of time?
Switching between the old maps and current ones is as easy as moving the transparency slider which could make this a priceless tool for the classroom. When I say priceless I really mean it in two different ways…because it would give kids an unmatched understanding of how the world has evolved and it is also priceless because it is free!
With all of that being said I am disappointed that I can’t try out the new historical map features. Google Earth seems to run unbelievably choppy in Vista almost to the point where I can’t use it. Hopefully things get smoothed out as Vista nears the official launch so that I can start tinkering around with this.
I’ve seen this piece of news covered in many places, and almost all coverage neglects to tell the reader how to activate the maps. Click the Layers sidebar, then Featured Content, and finally Rumsey Historical Maps.
And how does Google know what the land looked like hundreds of years ago?
They hired Lewis & Clarke.
Actually they got the maps [davidrumsey.com]
This would be especially useful to kids learning about WWI, because the world was much different after it than it was before. It would also be cool if they could add maps from 200 years ago, 300 years ago, etc…