Business Interiors Rolling Out in Google Maps Street View

Google Maps is a handy tool. It gives you directions, while the Street View feature allows you to scope out the sketchiness of an area before you possibly risk your life in it. Occasionally, though Street View is useful, it makes you feel like a creeper when a person catches your eye in the frozen street capture and you zoom in to get a better look. Now, Google is rolling out business interiors in Street View, so you can feel even more like a creeper when you’re spying on what people purchase and trying to catch establishments’ employees doing something nefarious.

The feature was announced back in May, but now a few interiors have been popping up on Google Maps, complete with bored-looking employees and shops full of no customers so clear pictures can be taken. For a company’s insides to be photographed, they must fill out an application for Google, and if Google is down with your application, they’ll set up a time for a shoot. Google owns all rights to the photos, though, so a company should make sure they’re okay with that before they take the plunge.

The business interior shots are a neat way to give potential customers a feel for the atmosphere of an establishment before they decide to actually go inside and expose themselves to the potential social and atmospheric dangers, but as one commenter on Hacker News points out, the business interior shots are a good way for a criminal to case a joint before robbing it blind.

So, what say you, Internet? Are you hoping this leads to Google Street View Residential Interiors? My bathroom is a sight to behold.

(via VentureBeat)

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