How to walk down memory lane on Google Maps Street View

Who doesn’t love a little nostalgia on their lunch break?

Google Maps Street View is one of the Internet’s ultimate time-breakers. It’s exciting to see a place you’ve never seen before, or a place you’d like to visit again. But you can travel back in time on Google Maps, seeing what your favorite places looked like years ago.

Here’s how to do it.

How to view past images on Google Maps Street View

To dive into the past on Google Maps, you must first find your perspective on the present. To do this, search for a specific location or address in the search bar. After you’ve pinpointed the location you want to see, scroll down to the “Photos” section in the sidebar and click the little circle icon for a 360-degree street view.

Click that to get started.
Credit: Screenshot: Google Maps

Once you’re actually in street view, you should have a little button in the top left corner that says “See more dates.” Be careful that every place on the planet has access to these past images.

There’s the ticket.
Credit: Screenshot: Google Maps

After you click that, there should be a horizontal scroll at the bottom of the screen where there are images of previous dates. For example, here’s what a random deli in Brooklyn looks like today.

Love this place.
Credit: Screenshot: Google Maps

And here’s how it looked 15 years ago.

Wow!
Credit: Screenshot: Google Maps

As you can see, things have changed a lot in the last decade and a half. And that’s just one small street corner in one city!

Is this an important and valuable use of your time? Probably not. But it’s fun for 20 minutes, and sometimes, that’s all you need.