EarthCam
Thousands of public webcams pointed at squares, harbours, volcanoes and building sites, some with archives stretching back decades.
Opens in a new tab. We do not control this site and it may have changed since we catalogued it.
How to get the most from it
EarthCam sits in Armchair Travel under Wander, filed as instant.
- Just open it. It pays off within seconds, with nothing to read first.
- It works on a phone or a desktop, so open it on whatever is nearest.
- It works with the sound off, so it is fine on a train or in a quiet office.
- No account needed — you can start without signing up.
- Go in expecting something nostalgic and mesmerising.
About this category: Street-view wandering, city walks, live webcams and the small miracle of standing on a road eight thousand kilometres away for free.
Good for
- A five-second distraction
- A trip back to the older internet
- Watching something hypnotic for a while
- A quiet break at your desk
- Killing time on your phone
- Trying it with zero commitment
EarthCam: quick answers
Is EarthCam free?
Yes. EarthCam is free to use and needs no account.
Do I need an account to use EarthCam?
No. You can use EarthCam without signing up for anything.
Does EarthCam work on a phone?
Yes. EarthCam works on phones as well as desktop browsers.
Is EarthCam safe for work?
Yes, we file it as safe for work. It also works muted.
How long does EarthCam take?
We file it as "Instant": Good within five seconds of loading.
More in Armchair Travel
All 13 in Armchair TravelThe game that made the genre: dropped into Street View, guess where on the globe you are. The free tier is thin these days.
- 10 min
The whole planet in 3D in a browser tab, with guided Voyager tours for when you would rather be told where to look than choose.
- 10 min
- Desktop
Drops you on a random road somewhere on Earth in Street View and leaves you to work out where you are, or simply wander off down it.
- <1 min
- Desktop
Street-level photography stitched together from volunteers' dashcams and phones, covering a great many roads no Google car ever drove down.
- 10 min
- Desktop
Same mood: nostalgic
All nostalgic sitesThe 2001 humour portal that somehow still updates, with the same mix of clips, pictures and questionable taste.
- 10 min
- Not at work
- Sound on
A museum of Google easter eggs that Google removed — gravity, the barrel roll, the mirrored search — all restored and working.
- 10 min
- Desktop
A simulated 1990s desktop with a working browser, games and applications, assembled as a preservation project rather than a joke.
- 1 hr+
- Sound on
- Desktop
Twenty-five years of accidentally poetic English on packaging and signage, photographed across East Asia.
- 10 min
Keep exploring
Category
Time and mood
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