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Animating historical imagery using the Google Earth plugin

October 30, 2014

Earlier this month we showed you a gif animation of the historical imagery of Europe. It was created by taking screenshots of Google Earth then combining them into an animated gif. However, doing that for every continent would be tedious, so instead we have decided to do it using the Google Earth plugin.

Although we have expressed concern about the future of the GE plugin, and a number of sites that used to use the plugin are starting to move to alternatives, it is, nevertheless, still a very useful tool.

If you have a browser that supports the Google Earth plugin you should see the Earth below. Rotate it to your favorite continent and click start. You should see the historical imagery toolbar in the top left corner of the plugin. If nothing happens, try refreshing the page and clicking start again.


The animation starts in this year. Each step will be a decade:
When this year is reached each following step will be a year:
When this year is reached each following step will be a month:
Length of each step in milliseconds:

 

For most parts of the world, the above settings will work fine, but we included them in case you wish to tweak them a bit for specific locations. Also try zooming in to see effects reminiscent of Google’s Timelapse.

If your browser does not support the plugin then you can see the results in the YouTube video below.

About Timothy Whitehead

Timothy has been using Google Earth since 2004 when it was still called Keyhole before it was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and has been a huge fan ever since. He is a programmer working for Red Wing Aerobatx and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Filed Under: GE Plugin Tagged With: Google Earth plugin, historical imagery

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PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

Comments

  1. MapMaker says

    October 31, 2014 at 5:30 am

    Today New Google Earth Imagery – 31 October 2014

    • Timothy Whitehead says

      October 31, 2014 at 7:57 am

      Do you have more details? I have listed a few areas found by another reader in today’s post.

      • MapMaker says

        October 31, 2014 at 8:10 am

        For example in Ukraine updated Poltava, Sumy



PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

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