It's frustrating to see feature announcements for features that aren't live yet - especially when they aren't framed as a "coming soon" feature.<p>If you're doing a slow roll-out, or announcing an upcoming feature, be explicit about that. Without setting expectations, you've completely lost the point of announcing. I won't just remember to check back later, and I won't share the news with anyone else since there's nothing to see.
I'm surprised they went forward with the fullscreen Google Maps experience. I can't believe how awful the performance is. I can't count how many times I've followed a link, including ones off this blog post, where the map will hang (on some js query I'm assuming) and won't respond to user input or do anything until the page is reloaded.<p>I also can't believe how tricky the UI is. Finding directions from one place to another is unbelievably difficult.<p>The only thing I can think of is that their desktop usage has just plummeted so they decided to go out the door with experimental features up to wazoo for the tinkerers who love to waste time exploring the map.
This is a truly exciting gift from our friends in the GooglePlex.<p>I guess that Microsoft, Apple and others in the mapping game must be disappointed by this announcement. This back-in-time feature is not necessarily 'must have' but it certainly is something that a lot of people are going to like. It also makes Google the only choice for the serious 'maps user'.<p>Personally I envy those born in the last few years. When they get to my age they will be able to explore the streets they grew up in rather than rely on hazy black and white memories.
This is similar, but maybe even cooler than Google Earth's time slide. I hope one day Google gives users the ability to filter Google News and Google search results by date.<p>One of my side projects is location based video sharing using the Google Map API. One of the first things I incorporated was a video search/filter by time/date. See: <a href="http://112.196.33.85/solitaire/demo/will_brown_new/login.php" rel="nofollow">http://112.196.33.85/solitaire/demo/will_brown_new/login.php</a>
I've been waiting for this feature to come about. I have to admit I've often taken a spin around street view in urban areas where there was major upheaval (devastation, rapid gentrification) and zoomed up and down streets hoping to get a glimpse of before / after street view photos. Pretty exciting to have it become featurized
It kinda remind me of the old Google that before Larry Page takes over: offers that may be not profitable in its nature but interesting and really enlighten your imagination.