Google Earth lets you explore the past now, and Maps gets one of its biggest updates ever

Whether you’re looking up the storefront of a specific restaurant or exploring a continent virtually, Google Maps and Google Earth are great tools for viewing a part of the world from your device. Now both applications are getting updates to make what you see even better.  

Also: 88% of US parents see AI as essential to their children’s education

On Wednesday, Google announced three new updates for Google Earth and Maps to enrich the user viewing and exploring experience. The first update is the availability of historical imagery on Google Earth, which allows users to explore Google’s satellite and aerial imagery library from as far back as 80 years ago. 

Historical imagery showcases changes over time, especially in places like London, Berlin, Warsaw, and Paris, where you can see imagery from as far back as the 1930s. Google Earth is also getting a newly designed home screen to make it easier for researchers and organizations to use and collaborate with the tool for projects. 

For people who want to explore other places in the world today, Google is launching what it calls one of the biggest updates to Street View yet — new street-view imagery from nearly 80 countries. This update lets users view more content in those countries taken by Google’s Street View cars and trekkers.

Also: Google Photos adds one-tap video editing for faster clip sharing, thanks to AI

Lastly, it wouldn’t be a Google update without incorporating artificial intelligence (AI). Starting this week, you will notice clearer and more vibrant images in Google Earth and Maps due to Google’s AI-powered cloud-removal technology, which improves photos by removing unwanted distractions.

Google says its Cloud Score+ AI model was trained on millions of images to identify elements that lower a picture’s quality, such as clouds, cloud shadows, haze, and mist, while keeping real-world elements, including ice, snow, and mountain shadows.