Google Business Photos Goes Where Street View Won't

Google has launched Business Photos a Street View equivalent for indoor environments, but aimed, as the name suggests, at businesses rather than other public places. It's hardly a surprising move, Google has been testing this for more than a year now and already offered indoor images in some places.

Now though, it's rolling out the tool widely, in the cities where it's available in. Businesses can apply for the program and a Google photographer will later stop by.

The images will then be available on the businesses' Place Pages along with other photos the owners may have uploaded.

"Millions of potential customers visit Google every day to learn about places and businesses. Through scheduled photo shoots, Google is introducing a new way for you to showcase your business to the world," Google explained.

"Google photographers are currently visiting businesses in select cities in the US, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Any business can apply for a photo shoot, and demand will help us decide where to send our photographers next," it added.

Street View has been the cause of plenty of trouble for Google, but it's also one of the most interesting products the company ever launched. But Street View, as is suggested, is all about the outside, if you ever wanted to see inside places you were out of luck.

Google is now promising the same thing for interiors, its trained photographers will take panoramic photos of the locations which will eventually be explorable to give a full 360 degree view.

For now though, the photos will be uploaded individually to the Place Pages of the businesses visited. However, Google says it may eventually stitch them together for a full panoramic view.

Business Photos is available in four countries right now and only several cities, but Google plans to expand the program to other places.