Google Street View Going Inside Stores?

Barry at SEL posts about a tip received from the owner of a NY shop called Oh Nuts. In essence the store said that Google came inside and took lots of pictures that will go up online and complement the exterior Street View images (“Store View”). All this was done with permission of course and probably didn’t cost the store anything.

According to Barry’s post:

I received a tip from a New York retailer named Oh Nuts, that Google came to their store to take pictures for a new Google Maps product named “Google Store Views.” I was told that they took pictures of the inside of the store, every 6 feet, in all directions. They also took pictures of products.

This may be a test or it may be the beginning of a broader effort and significant expansion of the Street View offering by Google (which would almost certainly extend into mobile). Everyscape does something similar but it charges businesses for interior views. Here is one of Everyscape’s interiors of the Sir Francis Drake hotel in SF:

Here is a picture capturing the Google photographer capturing the store interior. Barry has an additional shot on the SEL post:

What do you think? Consumers are going to be interested in interiors in many cases. But do you think that businesses will be interested in this sort of promotion on Google?

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