Google Brings Street View Indoors For Businesses

After mapping streets and most recently the Swiss railway, Google have come up with another way to expand  Street View’s features by taking the focus off the streets and inside buildings.

BBC News Technology has reported that the pilot project will now allow the public to look inside shops and other businesses found on their maps. The company has said that it was beginning the process by inviting the most searched types of businesses to request a visit by its photographers.

The businesses that would be considered include restaurants, hotels, shops, gyms and vehicle repair workshops. However, big-brand chains have been ruled out for the time being, alongside hospitals and lawyers’ offices.

Any business whose interior appears in the new feature will have done so voluntarily. Before any photoshoot can begin, businesses must notify their customers and employees about it before it can begin. Google has promised it will blur out or refuse to publish any images that include bystanders.

Initially, the feature will be limited to select locations across the world including London, Paris and a number of cities located in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Similar to Street View, the photoshoots will produce 360-degree images using fish-eye and wide-angle lenses as well as stills. Businesses also have the option of uploading their own images if they wish to.

Google have stated that all photographs taken will become its property and that they may be used for other applications. While businesses can request to have these images removed, the terms and conditions do not include a commitment to comply.

While it’s impressive, the only way you can seem to access this feature is through Google Places which is a bit of a pain for accessing. For now, you can’t go onto Google Maps and select a business to browse through but it could be a feature that will be integrated in the future when more businesses warm to the idea.

The appeal to consumers is that there’s something interesting about exploring a store located in a different part of the world such as this restaurant in Kyoto, Japan. However, whether this project succeeds or fails depends on how many businesses take Google up on their offer. The small print might deter some but the extra exposure on one of Google’s most popular feature might be too great to resist.