Vietnamese netizens enthused by Google Maps "Time travel" trend

THE HANOI TIMES — A trend has swept across Vietnam of using the Street View feature on Google Maps to revisit old homes and neighborhoods, leaving many netizens in tears as they stumble upon cherished memories and long-lost loved ones captured by the feature.

In recent weeks, Vietnamese social media has been flooded with people sharing how they "time traveled" through Google Maps to see their childhood homes, old streets, and departed family members.

For many, the experience is bittersweet, as users have shared emotional moments like seeing a late mother sweeping or a grandfather on the porch, scenes accidentally preserved by Google’s cameras.

The trend isn’t just about personal nostalgia. Urban planning students and researchers use the feature to track neighborhood changes, calling it a digital archive of Vietnam’s urban evolution, with users opening Google Maps, entering an address, activating Street View, and clicking "See other dates" to browse past images spanning back a decade.

However, the feature is more precise in larger cities or areas that have been frequently documented by Google’s Street View cars.

While some homes in alleys remain untouched by cameras, the trend has sparked a conversation about preserving family moments, prompting many to urge taking more photos for future generations.

As the trend catches on, it shows that technology, often considered cold and impersonal, can unexpectedly bridge the gap between the past and the present, transforming pixels into meaningful keepsakes.