Tour Builder is a storytelling web-tool that Google released in Beta in 2013. Users can use it to create a map-based story and share it with others. Readers would be sent from one location to another and see relevant photos and videos at each step of the journey, along with commentary.
In August 2020, Google announced on their Google Earth page that they were shutting down the Tour Builder project. It might not be much of a surprise, considering it never left the Beta stage.
Here’s what they had to say about their decision:
With the launch of creation tools in Google Earth for Web, you can turn our digital globe into your own storytelling canvas, create a map or story about the places that matter to you in 3D, and benefit from the added features of robust collaboration and Google Drive storage.
Users will have until July 15, 2021, to save or transfer their data. After this, all information on Tour Builder will be deleted. They can choose between downloading the data in a KML or CSV file format, or they can transfer it to Google Earth for Web and Google Earth Pro. Users will need to have a Google account for the latter and use Google Drive to save their current and future tours.
Google expressed their intentions to invest future efforts in developing Google Earth and its storytelling features.
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