Remember How Cool Google Earth Was When It Launched 20 Years Ago?

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It has been 20 years since we first got a chance to try Google Earth, with it punishing the onboard graphics capabilities of many office computers as people tried it out at work.  It performed much better at home on your GeForce 6800 Ultra or ATI Radeon X800 XT PE, but it was somehow more fun convincing your boss that checking out Google Earth was time well spent at work.  At the time it was incredibly impressive as the only similar global mapping software cost a significant amount of money to get access to.  Google Earth has remained every bit as impressive to this day, though many users no longer access it as an app, but instead use Google Maps which uses the same data but instead of hunting coral reefs most users are just looking for directions to a restaurant.

Alphabet is planning a number of interesting additions to celebrate two decades of Google Earth, the first of which offers you the chance to travel back in time.  You have always been able to do that, but only as sets of static images.  Google Earth will now offer a new 3D timelapse feature so you can watch the changes in action as opposed to clicking through what is more or less a series of slides.  If you pay for the professional version, you will soon see average surface temperatures, tree canopy coverage in a given area and other additional data which is not just cool, but could help with the designs of cities.

Pop by Google Earth to check it out, or read about it at Ars Technica.