Google Earth

[Matt Fellman]

I just stumbled upon a pretty feature in Google Earth. You can scroll back to 1994 to look at overhead shots. I just used it to verify when a roof was replaced when there was some question and I couldn't find a date on a flashing.

Maybe this is old news but if you don't know about it give it a try.

[Rick Cantrell]

I didn't know that. I have to check it out.

[Steven Turetsky]

I don't see any option to select dates. How do you get there?

[Alton Darty]

I don't see any option to select dates. How do you get there?

Click view, then check historical imagery.

[John Dirks Jr]

I tried and found that as you go back in time, the resolution gets pretty bad. At least from my perspective. I can see how it might allow you to narrow down when a major change was done, such as an addition. But determining when a roof was replace might be sketchy at best.

[Matt Fellman]

I tried and found that as you go back in time, the resolution gets pretty bad. At least from my perspective. I can see how it might allow you to narrow down when a major change was done, such as an addition. But determining when a roof was replace might be sketchy at best.

I had the same experience at first but I found from clicking on a given year a couple times or just moving up and down the slide a bit it would be much more clear sometimes. Seemed kind of strange and "glitchy" but I did get it to work great and nail down a roof being changed between 2006 and 2007.

[Lon Henderson]

The quality of the photos change pretty dramatically.

At my house, the previous owner added a large barn without pulling any permits. Two years ago, the assessor pulls up with satellite photos showing the barn and telling me he had gotten the bright idea of comparing satellite photos to the tax records. Oh and by the way, my taxes are about to go up. He could tell by the chronology of photos, that I hadn't put the barn up, but he didn't really care, he was there just for the revenue.

[Hector Rodriguez]

I tried and found that as you go back in time, the resolution gets pretty bad. At least from my perspective. I can see how it might allow you to narrow down when a major change was done, such as an addition. But determining when a roof was replace might be sketchy at best.

I've also found that the slider only stops on the dates already preset on the bar. You can't manipulate the slider at will.

[Alton Darty]

I've also found that the slider only stops on the dates already preset on the bar. You can't manipulate the slider at will.

It is easy to see that the imagery has improved considerably over a fairly short time frame. The "gaps" in the dates or times for images are due to the number of satellites covering huge areas, it is just impossible to have a new high resolution photo of each grid square each month. Maybe if the NSA would share some of their satellite imagery with Google Earth...

[John Arnold]

Click view, then check historical imagery.

I can't find "view", much less "historical imagery". Where is it?

[Alton Darty]

I can't find "view", much less "historical imagery". Where is it?

Tool bar at top left of screen. shows File, Edit, View, Tools, Add and Help.
You may need to download a more recent version of Google Earth, don't recall when this feature was added. My version is 7.1.2.204.

[Lon Henderson]

Here's a photo showing the time bar. Click the clock in the upper left corner and then move the slider to find the dates when the satellite took a photo.