google earth street view View Now Lets You Go Back In Time

Every day, Google’s Street View cars capture massive amounts of data and the company then publishes them on Google Maps at regular intervals. Until now, the only images you could see on Google Maps were the latest images. Starting today, however, you will also be able to go back in time and see older images.
When you’re in the Street View interface, you will now see a small clock icon on the page. Once you click that, a preview image with a timeline underneath it will appear and allow you to see the older images.
It looks like Google’s Street View cars pass by most locations about twice per year. There is a bit of variation here, however, and some urban areas especially have more historical images available while some rural areas may have fewer. In many regions of the world, Google only started collecting this imagery in the last few years (it launched in the U.S. in 2007), so that may also limit the availability of historical images.
Google tells me this update is meant to be part of the company’s effort to “create a digital mirror and true record of the world.”
The update is going live globally today. For now, it will only be available in the desktop version of Google Maps and it is unclear if Google plans to bring this feature to other versions of Maps later.
Here are a few examples of what these images look like:

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Google Pays Another Tiny Fine In Europe — $1.4M — For Street View Privacy Concerns

Google has paid a €1 million ($1.4 million) fine in Italy levied by the country’s data protection watchdog for complaints relating to its Street View street-level image capturing cars that date back to 2010.

At issue was a failure by Google to make its Street View cars clearly identifiable. In 2010, the watchdog ruled that the Street View cars must carry signs or stickers to indicate that they were capturing photographs.

It had also stipulated that Google must to publicize the locations its cars would be visiting ahead of time, on its website and in local news media — so Italians could choose to avoid the risk of being photographed.

The fine also relates to Google’s Street View cars accidentally recording communication data as they went about their mapping business in the country. Last April Google was fined around $190,000 in Germany over similar Street View privacy concerns relating to the harvesting of additional data such as Wi-Fi passwords.

The Italian watchdog said it received many complaints about the privacy infringement of Google’s Street View cars, and yesterday said it had imposed a fine of €1 million on Google — which the company paid a few weeks ago.

The regulator said Google has since promptly adopted the requested measures.

In determining the level of the fine to impose on Google, the data protection authority said it took into account the company’s “consolidated revenue of over $50 billion”. But, even so, $1.4 million is another drop in the ocean for a company whose market cap broke $400 billion earlier this year.

In a statement given to Reuters, Google noted that the fine related to a case dating back to 2010, and added: ”We complied with everything the [regulator] required of us at the time.”

Google has also previously been fined in Europe on privacy grounds relating to its early 2012 decision to unify the privacy policies of more than 70 different products.

Google was fined around $200,000 in France in January for privacy infringements relating to that decision. Spain also levied a $1.3 million fine back in December for the same issue.

Even cumulatively such amounts pale into insignificance for a company of Google’s size — underlining the regulatory difficulties of reigning in any overreaching behaviour by the U.S. tech giant.

Google Street View takes you on a tour of Angkor’s thousand-year-old temples

Google Street View has been offering up much prettier sights than your local corner shop for quite a while now. Google has already collected various panoramic shots of the California National Parks, taken us onto the pitch at London’s Wembley Stadium, and has even gone diving in the Galapagos Islands. This time, the Street View team has compiled a collection of over 90,000 panoramic images of Angkor Wat’s famous temples in Cambodia.

The photographs were taken during sunrise at more than 100 unique historical sites, including the Temple of Bayon and the famous The Churning of the Ocean of Milk relief. Google’s motive is simply to share this unique cultural and archaeological experience with people who ordinarily wouldn’t visit the area.

“We hope this new imagery will not only let people experience the scale and beauty of Angkor wherever they are, but also demonstrate how technology can change the way cultural treasures are preserved for generations to come.” Manik Gupta, Group Product Manager, Google Maps

As well as the huge collection of panoramic images, the Google Cultural Institute is running an online exhibit about Angkor and Khmer culture in the world wonders section. Here you’ll find a collection of 12th-century sculpture, modern-day illustrations depicting the daily life in medieval Angkor, and photographs from the mid-20th century.

Anyway, you should really go and check it all out for yourselves. If you’d like a quick tour of the sights, Google has also put together the video below.

Alternatively, if you’d like to check out the views for yourself, head on over to the Angkor Google Maps page and select your desired viewpoint. Happy exploring.

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