We are always on the look out for recent events that make it into Google Earth imagery. With sudden events such as the Napa Valley earth quake or the Koslanda landslide we only get to see the aftermath. Google Earth imagery is not real time, but occasionally we get to see events while they are still on-going, such as Hawaii’s Kilauea lava flows.
The on-going protests in Hong Kong began in late September. Since then, Google has added imagery for Hong Kong taken on October 12th and October 17th. Although you can’t make out a lot of detail, there are clearly some tents and a lot of activity on what is normally a busy highway. See the location in Street View to get an idea of what the area normally looks like, then have a look at this Photo Sphere to see it during the protests.
To find the location in Google Earth download this KML file
We found out about the story here.