New Feature Turns Google Street View Into Your Own Time Machine [PHOTOS]

I've always wanted a time machine. It's almost 2015 and there's still no flux capacitor or flying cars, but we do have a new feature in Google Street View that will satisfy my time travelling desires for now. 

Ever since Google launched Street View in Google Maps and Google Earth back in 2007, they have been very quietly cataloging the world in a 360 degree panoramic view. Google knows the world changes, so they update their Street View images every few years.

Well now they've added a neat new feature that lets you find a Street View location and look back at an archive of what it looked like all the previous times they visited with their Google car.

Here's what the corner of Marginal Way and Preble Street in Portland looked like as we go back in time:

2011

2009

2007

Pretty neat huh?

Of course there are limits to your time traveling abilities. You can only go back as far as 2007 and the Google car may have only visited a certain location once.

How do you go back in time with Google Street View? In the upper left corner of your Street View you'll see this:

Click the down arrow next to the clock and you'll be shown a list of all the available archived photos. Pick the year you want and click on it and your Street View goes back in time!

You can find some interesting things that you might have forgotten about too. Here's Turner and Barker Insurance in 2011.

And here it is in 2007.

Thanks Redbox!