Google has seen fit to give its Business Photos a little more prominence on its search results pages with the introduction of a new See inside button.
So now when a business shows up in search for which interior images are available, you’ll notice a See inside button in the bottom right corner of the interior photograph. Click on it and you’ll be taken to Google Maps, where you can take a look around the inside of the business you’re interested in, whether it’s a restaurant, art gallery, hotel, store….you get the idea.
The images are Street View in style, providing 360-degree views. And this isn’t just a panoramic view from one position – just like Street View, you can click on the arrows to make your way around the interior, enabling you to view the location from a number of perspectives.
The images for Google’s Business Pages feature are provided by an army of ‘trusted photographers’ located in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Ireland and the Netherlands. Presumably the service will be rolled out to more countries over time.
The Mountain View company has been working on its Business Photos for a while now, though of course the number of businesses covered is still a tiny percentage of what’s out there.
A business that wants its interior mapped just needs to contact one of Google’s snappers, agree a time and date for the pictures to be taken – as well as what Google calls “a fair price” for the photographer’s work – and within a couple of days the images will be up on the web, available via Google Maps, Google+Local and Google search results.