Like Google Maps, Google Earth is marking its 20th birthday this year. Other first-party milestones (10 years) in 2025 include Google Photos, Fi Wireless, and YouTube Music.
Google Earth was the result of an acquisition (Keyhole), with the first Google version of the software coming in June 2005. It saw 100 million downloads in the first week. Over the years, Google has worked to make the 3D representation of the planet more realistic, and it eventually came to the web.
It offers “billions of images across aerial photography, satellite imagery, Street View and 3D visuals,” with Google noting 2 billion place searches in the past year.
To make the occasion, Google Earth is adding historical Street View imagery: “you can explore the wonders of the planet from even more viewpoints, whether it’s a bird’s eye view or at street level.”
Meanwhile, professional users can now access new datasets, including tree canopy coverage for cities and land temperatures. With most people using Maps, Google Earth in recent years has really focused on this tool use case. For example, it can be used to evaluate buildings and even sites for solar deployment. Last year, Gemini in Google Earth was introduced to offer city-level insights that urban planners might find useful.
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