When you follow the instructions, this takes you somewhere you really don't expect to go: back where you grew up. And type in your address and, thanks to Google Earth, you can go anywhere you like, to the tune of Arcade Fire's We Used To Wait. And then you can write to your childhood self, and then more stuff happens, and over and above that, this is a multi-image experience, courtesy of the fact it was programmed in cutting edge code HTML5. It is, undoubtedly, a brilliant way of showing the genius of Google Earth (and one does wonder, is the recommendation that the whole thing plays better on Chrome actually true). But this is just not an ad for Google and some of its works. The technology is harnessed to serve a very strong idea - and then it's executed to a level that it can hardly fail to draw an emotional, very personal response. A milestone. <a href="http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com" target="_blank"><em>The Wilderness Downtown</em></a>

When you follow the instructions, this takes you somewhere you really don't expect to go: back where you grew up. And type in your address and, thanks to Google Earth, you can go anywhere you like, to the tune of Arcade Fire's We Used To Wait. And then you can write to your childhood self, and then more stuff happens, and over and above that, this is a multi-image experience, courtesy of the fact it was programmed in cutting edge code HTML5.

When you follow the instructions, this takes you somewhere you really don't expect to go: back where you grew up. And type in your address and, thanks to Google Earth, you can go anywhere you like, to the tune of Arcade Fire's We Used To Wait. And then you can write to your childhood self, and then more stuff happens, and over and above that, this is a multi-image experience, courtesy of the fact it was programmed in cutting edge code HTML5. It is, undoubtedly, a brilliant way of showing the genius of Google Earth (and one does wonder, is the recommendation that the whole thing plays better on Chrome actually true). But this is just not an ad for Google and some of its works. The technology is harnessed to serve a very strong idea - and then it's executed to a level that it can hardly fail to draw an emotional, very personal response. A milestone. <a href="http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com" target="_blank"><em>The Wilderness Downtown</em></a>

It is, undoubtedly, a brilliant way of showing the genius of Google Earth (and one does wonder, is the recommendation that the whole thing plays better on Chrome actually true). But this is just not an ad for Google and some of its works. The technology is harnessed to serve a very strong idea - and then it's executed to a level that it can hardly fail to draw an emotional, very personal response. A milestone.

When you follow the instructions, this takes you somewhere you really don't expect to go: back where you grew up. And type in your address and, thanks to Google Earth, you can go anywhere you like, to the tune of Arcade Fire's We Used To Wait. And then you can write to your childhood self, and then more stuff happens, and over and above that, this is a multi-image experience, courtesy of the fact it was programmed in cutting edge code HTML5. It is, undoubtedly, a brilliant way of showing the genius of Google Earth (and one does wonder, is the recommendation that the whole thing plays better on Chrome actually true). But this is just not an ad for Google and some of its works. The technology is harnessed to serve a very strong idea - and then it's executed to a level that it can hardly fail to draw an emotional, very personal response. A milestone. <a href="http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com" target="_blank"><em>The Wilderness Downtown</em></a>

The Wilderness Downtown