Preserving History

I just found out that a dear old friend of mine is currently living in New Zealand. I don't believe she was there when I was there, but just thinking about our trip has been a nice distraction lately. Playing Geoguessr has taken me to so many very interesting (and completely non-interesting) places but the game has yet to drop me in New Zealand. I decided to go into Street View and look back at New Zealand though since the country is well-covered. I discovered something very cool. One of the most disappointing parts of our trip was our visit to Christchurch. I am so glad that we went to see the city and supported it with some of our tourist dollars, but there really wasn't much to see as most of the core downtown, including Cathedral Square, was fenced off and unsafe. While exploring in Street View I see now that Google has begun to augment their original, pre-earthquake images with images of what the new city is emerging into. It's really great, as you follow along Cathedral Square you see it's original views.

Then, when you see a set of double arrows you can click and it shows you what the redevelopment is looking like (so sad to see the entire bell tower gone).

I know that Google had been contemplating how they could keep the historic footage while also updating and I think this method is brilliant. They are also figuring out how to use this same method for other parts of the world like parts of Japan for example.

Who would have thought that this up and coming "new" technology would play such an important role in preserving history as well. Even areas that aren't affected by disaster will change over time and keeping a log, in record if not even available for view, is an amazing way to archive snapshots in time. I read that the original Street View images of Christchurch have been very helpful in the continued redevelopment there. Google maybe be a big, daunting internet mogul who does annoying things at time (hello, Google Reader, come back!) but there are times when I definitely think they are on to something.

I don't know if I am supposed to be posting screen captures of Street View for my blog but hopefully Google won't mind since I am praising them and all...