de.tech.ting

Perhaps they’ll also show views of the world BG and AG — Before and After Google.

Google Earth Goes Into the Past, Underwater–And Deep Into Your Computer’s System

Google Earth Goes Into the Past, Underwater–And Deep Into Your Computer’s System – Faster Forward.

Earlier this month, Google released a beta-test release of the newest version of Google Earth. Google Earth 5.0, a free download for Windows 2000, XP or Vista, Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5, and most versions of Linux, adds some fascinating new perspectives on this planet–and one other–but I’m not going to rush to install it.

Unlike earlier releases, this treasure chest of 3-D cartography doesn’t just show what’s on the ground today. It includes a collection of overhead views from earlier years and lets you view the majority of the Earth’s surface covered by its oceans.

The historical imagery is likely to be the biggest time-suck. To see what a place looked like before, click the clock icon in Google Earth’s toolbar, then move a slider back to earlier years. For example, you can see that in 1949, there was only one 14th Street Bridge going over the Potomac (although a second span was under construction). The Las Vegas of 1950, meanwhile, is a barren, lifeless desert.