Abstract: A method and system are provided for presenting a virtual world environment to users operating client devices connected to a network. The method includes (a) receiving data from one or more automated data miners or a plurality of contributors describing places on a planet at specified time periods; (b) storing the data received in step (a) in one or more databases; (c) receiving one or more requests from one of the users for data describing a place on the planet at one or more time periods; and (d) generating multimedia representations of the place at different time periods based on data in the one or more databases, and transmitting the multimedia representations to the user to be presented to the user on a client device operated by the user, at least one of the multimedia representations including a user interface element selectable by the user to change the multimedia representation of a place at one time period to a multimedia representation of the place at a different time period.