Street View is 15 years old today, and to celebrate, there is a new way to view historical imagery on the service.
When in Street View mode, users can access the historical imagery by first tapping anywhere on the photo to see information about the location, and then selecting "see more dates" to access the current location's historical imagery.
The imagery can be seen in locations where Street View was available at the time. The ability to display historical imagery has been available on the desktop version of the app, but it is the first time it is available on the mobile version.
The 15th anniversary of Street View coincides with the announcement that a new camera will be deployed next year to capture more high-quality images in harder to reach places.
In addition to our Street View car and trekker, we're piloting a new camera that will fully roll out next year to help us collect high-quality images in more places. This new camera takes all the power, resolution and processing capabilities that we've built into an entire Street View car, and shrinks it down into an ultra-transportable camera system that's roughly the size of a house cat. But unlike house cats, it's ready to be taken to remote islands, up to the tops of mountains or on a stroll through your local town square.
The new camera weighs less than 15 pounds and is modular so that components like lidar can be added to collect imagery with even more helpful details. The camera can be attached to any vehicle that has a roof rack.
The anniversary of Street View is being used to highlight the upcoming Immersive view for cities. The feature is set to launch later this year and uses artificial intelligence and high-quality 3D rendering to mimic real-time data.
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