Google Earth Celebrates 10th Year With Voyager and 1,500 Images [Video]

Google Earth is celebrating its 10th year with the Voyager and 1,500 new Earth View images. The feature was launched in 2005 and turned 10 on June 29. In his blog post on Google’s official blog, Google Earth Engineering Manager Sean Askay related how he had been fascinated by the feature 10 years ago, when he used it to build a visual report about a high-tech biological research reserve, and continued by explaining how it brought him to his present career.

Barely a month after it started, in August 2005, Hurricane Katrina proved how useful the feature was for crisis response efforts. Mapping tools like Earth were used by rescue workers to compare before and after images to better locate the places where people might be stranded. After some years, the feature experienced two billion downloads by people in almost all countries in the world, who used it to discover new coral reefs, clear land mines, find long-lost family members, and learn more about topics such as exploration of the universe and journeys to the Moon.

Google Earth empowers groups, such as NASA scientists and school children, to learn more about the world, which helps to make Earth a connected place. When people take the time to discover, explore, and share their knowledge, a powerful mapping tool like Earth comes in handy. To celebrate Google Earth’s 10th birthday, Google created new ways to help everyone see places from above and around the globe.

Google Earth celebrates its 10th year with Voyager, a new layer to explore the planet, and 1,500 new Earth View images. The Voyager is available in Earth’s desktop versions. With Voyager, people can jump directly to the most interesting or recent imagery around the globe, so there is no need to figure out where to begin their journey on the massive globe.

Voyager’s first edition has five sections: Street View, Earth View, 3D Cities, Satellite Imagery Updates, and Highlight Tour. Voyager will bring anyone to Street View highlights, such as the Grand Canyon and Taj Mahal, and guide one to an aerial peek at Earth View’s striking landscapes all over the world. Voyager offers 3D images of cities, as it showcases towns and cities in three-dimensional, photo-realistic presentations. The new feature will also bring anyone to the latest published satellite imagery or give a quick tour of thousands of locations.

Viewing the human habitat from above with Earth View demonstrates how interdependent the human and natural ecosystems are, aside from displaying the planet’s surreal beauty. Earth View collects the most enigmatic and stunning landscapes in Google Earth, which are captured by the source satellites. Google expands its collection with 1,500 landscapes from every ocean and continent to make them accessible to more people. The new version can be seen by updating the Chrome extension or via a new web gallery.

Earth View started as a project last year by some Googlers who enjoyed searching satellite images for scenic gems. The picturesque images landed as wallpapers on Android phones and other devices. Now, they can be easily downloaded for anyone who wants them on their desktops or mobiles, as well as home and office walls.

Gizmodo Australia says that Google Earth is not just about stunning images, but also remarkable for how it has impacted the way the world and its people work. It has inspired geological and anthropological insights as well, by showcasing features such as the best-preserved crater on Earth, Egyptian pyramids, lost worlds, rampant deforestation, and a lot more. Furthermore, Google Earth can also serve as a cornerstone for budding engineers and cartographers.

As Google Earth celebrates its 10th year with Voyager, another way to explore the planet, and 1,500 new Earth View images, it is worth noting that Earth has also helped to solve crimes. In fact, late last year, YouTuber Alltime10s published stories of tax evaders, thieves, drug dealers, and other criminals who were captured on the feature, as shown in the video below.

By Judith Aparri
Edited By Leigh Haugh

Sources:
Google Official Blog: Google Earth Turns 10 Today
Engadget: Google Earth Gets Two New Features for Its 10th birthday
Gizmodo Australia: The Most Beautiful Landscapes From 10 Years of Google Earth
YouTube: 10 Crimes Caught on Google Earth
Photo courtesy of UNclimatechange‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License