The first time the now famous Google car started taking images of Liverpool's streets was way back in 2008.
Since then, the car has been visiting the city almost every year with the newest set of images taken in September, 2022. There are now over 220 billion Street View images from over 100 countries and territories across the world, allowing users to explore the streets of countries they could only dream of travelling to.
Google's cameras snap a number of photos as well as capturing GPS data to match each photograph to its location. Images from each camera overlap and special software then 'stitches' them together to form a map.
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The car also has lasers which reflect off buildings and other objects and help Google to create 3D models for their maps. This information helps create the bird's-eye views, looking down on the city that can also be viewed in Street View.
Google Street View's time slider function also enables us to view Liverpool's streets through every year the Google car came to the city. The result is a virtual time machine, showing us lost city landmarks, long-vanished shops, pubs and sometimes even people.
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Earlier this year, the Liverpool Echo reported on Mike Doyle. Mike came across a photo of his grandad alongside his late nan using Google's Street View.
Sharing the snap on Twitter, Mike said: "My Nan passed away in 2015, so it’s great to see Google Maps have recently added a feature to see old street views, like this one of her going out with my Grandad in 2012. My Grandad still lives on to this day, at 90 and he’ll be made up when I show him this."
For beautiful, historic images from the past have a look at memorylane.co.uk/ and see what you can discover
The earliest views taken in Liverpool city centre date back to 2008. What's evident in the most recent images taken by the Google car is how much modern some areas now look, particularly around Lime Street and the Strand.
Over the years, we've seen some amazing new places pop up in the city centre. While change is inevitable, it can still be nice to fondly look back on times gone by.
How many of these places can you remember as they were? Check out our gallery above to see how things have changed.
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