(Image Source: Bang Style)


BY JULIA CORDEROY

Google is trying to get inside your business - think Street View, but indoors. The Internet giant is testing a project allowing the public to look inside shops and other businesses found on its maps.

The feature will take 360-degree photos using fish-eye and wide-angle lenses as well as stills. Business owners are also invited to upload their own pictures. Arrows will appear on the floor, allowing you to digitally walk through the store. If you're at the street level, you can just "walk" into a store following the same arrows. (YouTube: Google Channel)

Google hopes their new service could give business a lift. With every customer coming at a premium, the more ways a retailer can stand out, the better. BBC quotes a Google spokesperson...

“We hope to enable businesses to highlight the qualities that make their locations stand out through professional, high-quality imagery."

This isn’t exactly innovative for Google - it will be building upon the Google Art Project which took the Street View technology inside 17 museums. So, it should look a little something like this video of The Metropolitan Museum of Art when it rolls out... (YouTube: Google Art Project)

But something like this will raise privacy concerns. E-Week Europe remembers several concerns about the first incarnation of Google’s ‘view’ technology

“In May last year, Google was forced to admit that its Street View cars had accidentally amassed 600GB of data from personal and business Wi-Fi networks, including emails, passwords and web browsing information.”

Google won’t be knocking down your door to take the photos though - businesses have to sign up if they want to use the service. They wont be taking any photos of lawyers offices, or hospitals, and have promised to blur or deny any photos with bystanders in them. But Geek-O-System highlights the fine print...

“Google owns all rights to the photos, though, so a company should make sure they’re okay with that before they take the plunge.”

Privacy issues aside - a commenter on Hacker News points out an issue of more low-tech security...

“...I worry that it now makes ‘casing the joint’ a little easier.”

Google has said it will roll the service out in a limited amount of countries, and restrict it to the most searched type of businesses. Large chains will not be included.