Google Earth: Historical Imagery and 3D Ocean Floor

Google released the newest version of its Google Earth product, and has included some terrific new features.

One is the ability to see all of their historic satellite imagery for an area.  Most parts of the US seem to go back to 1993, but some go back to the 1940s.  You can cycle through each set of images and play them in a loop.  A side benefit of this is that you can now see the month and year that the satelitte pictures were taken.

Louisville had about 10 sets going back to 1993.  Here is an animation I made of part of our Ohio River waterfront development over time:

And here is a more detailed version of the entire set (click for high resolution):

Another feature is the ability to dive under the ocean and see all of the earth's ocean floors in 3D, thus increasing Earth's coverage by 233%.

You can also now record everything you are doing, including image history, zooming, panning, toggleing features, audio description, etc, and then share this with anyone else throught Google Earth.  The recipient can play back what you have demonstrated, including your voice over.

Google LatLong: New in Google Earth 5.0: Historical Imagery

New Maps: 100 Most Recent and Most Popular

Take a peek at what other people are searching for on Metro Mapper with two new maps. One map shows you in real-time the last 100 searches made, and another shows you the most popular locations of all time. The top 20 get their own black marker (labeled 1 to 20).


If something is going on right now in Louisville related to housing, crime, sex offenders, or restaurants, watch as everyone's searches cluster around that area!

A great feature of the maps are the icons across the bottom. Hover your mouse over them to see what they do. Here's a breakdown:

Make Map Larger: If this map is on another website, click this to see larger version on Metro Mapper

Link to Map: Create a link to this map, which you can bookmark, or send to others. The markers will keep getting updated when you revisit this link.

Email this Map: Creates an email with a link to this map inside. Send it to your friends so they can see what you see.

Open in Google Earth: This opens the markers in the 3D program, Google Earth. You can save this so you see it everytime you open it later. This links to the KML data file, so you can use that in other programs if you are a developer.

Initial View: Return to the initial view of this map, in case you've been panning and zooming the map around and got lost.

Refresh Map Data: Grabs the most recent data quickly and on-the-fly, so you don't have to refresh the whole page to see the newest results.