Feed: Slashdot
Feed Link: https://slashdot.org/
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Title: Google Rolls Out Street View Time Travel To Celebrate 20 Years of
Google Earth

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/25/0127...

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After 20 years, being
able to look at any corner of the planet in Google Earth doesn't seem that
impressive, but it was a revolution in 2005. Google Earth has gone through a
lot of changes in that time, and Google has some more lined up for the
service's 20th anniversary. Soon, Google Earth will help you travel back in
time with historic Street View integration, and pro users will get some new
"AI-driven insights" -- of course Google can't update a product without
adding at least a little AI. [...] While this part isn't new, Google is also
using the 20th anniversary as an opportunity to surface its 3D timelapse
feature. These animations use satellite data to show how an area has changed
from a higher vantage point. They're just as cool as when they were announced
in 2021. The AI layers are launching in the coming weeks in Google Earth web
and mobile as part of Google's Professional Advanced offering. If you use
that version of Earth, you should have access to a collection of so-called
"AI-driven insights." For instance, you can find the average surface
temperature or tree canopy coverage in a given area. This could be of help in
urban planning or construction, but it's unclear how many of these insights
the app will have. Google says the AI angle here is that the new layers use
machine learning to categorize pixels. It's possible Google has just reached
the "AI as a buzzword" stage.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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