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Google Street View Moves Indoors
Hugh Pickens writes "Google is taking its Street View mapping service indoors with plans moving ahead for 360-degree Business Photos, a program that would send Google photographers to various businesses to snap professional photos for their Places Page. 'This experience, using Street View technology, includes 360-degree imagery of the business interior and storefront,' says Google. 'With this immersive imagery, potential customers can easily imagine themselves at the business and decide if they want to visit in person.' Photographs are taken by 'trusted' photographers, though businesses can also upload their own images via Google Places. It's starting with businesses 'that we know are searched for most regularly,' like restaurants, hotels, retail shops, gyms, salons, and repair shops. Taking internal photos and posting them online brings up some security questions, but Google says its photographs will 'capture nothing different to what a customer would see by visiting the business in real life.'"
Next they'll be asking us if pictures of our homes are okay.
Move sig now.
Now I can plan my armed robberies/burglaries without having to waste gas on driving to the place of business to scope out the place :)
In real life, lawyers cannot sit in their offices and look for potential trip and fall hazards to exploit. Criminals cannot take detailed photos of the interior so they know exactly where to cut through the ceiling at night to avoid motion detectors. There are many reasons most stores do not allow customers to take photos. I predict most chains will be issuing memos to their stores reminding them of the policy against allowing photos.
Opt out if you have something to hide!
Google: You're not supposed to use April Fools jokes as product ideas. Sincerely, Already Nervous Google Users Everywhere
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
The had part: getting that car in through the front door.
Already have done this with my business some time ago. I wouldn't call this new news. It's not like they bust in and snap the photos without the business owner's permission. It's opt-in, and it's a good idea for businesses that would like the marketing boost. Cutting in through the ceiling to avoid motion detectors? You guys have been watching WAY too many heist movies. Ever tried operating a concrete saw at night? Good luck not attracting attention. It's just as easy for a criminal to walk into a place, walk around, get a feel, maybe snap some photos on their cell phone (increasingly commonplace), buy a cheap item to keep from looking suspicious, and walk out.
Funny how in the last discussion on a topic like this, something about a rule against photos in a mall in Scotland, the concensus seemed to be that you have the right to take photos...
As much as I dislike Google and surveillance society, this is neither surveillance nor shocking. There is nothing that will be shown that you could not see on your own going into the store. I don't really see how in this case you having the right to take and presumably distribute photos is any different than Google doing so. Yes, they are a company and not a person, but that distinction only matters in some cases. If Google doesn't have the right to, you won't pretty damn soon yourself. Think about that.
Is it a little scary that there might be a database of interiors of buildings? Maybe; but on the other hand, almost no one seems to bat an eye at the millions of surveillance cameras that take and stream video to who knows where (other than Youtube. Funny how that works). I don't really see how static photos is in any way shocking when that is the norm. I suppose things are only scary if they are new and scary, something that just shows intellectual laziness.
Great Intellect...
I, as well as millions of other people, would find this incredibly useful.
To be able to see the insides of places you may or may not visit would be very handy in decision making.
Feel a little Italian, find a nice authentic Italian restaurant. The look and feel counts just as much as the food does. (in a lot of peoples opinions)
The only problem I see with this is interior changes. Not such a huge problem with maps, but inside views can change frequently in some cases, especially stores, so it gives a false sense of what it'd look like now.
Just wait for any phone with android to start taking random pictures that are then reviewed by people at google to compile 360 views of the interior of your home! Nah, that would be pointless but still funny if they actually wasted recourses for such a thing.
Next we just need a Grocery Store Map program... so we can get directions to the shelf containing the item we are looking for without having to wonder aimlessly around the grocery store for 10 minutes looking for an employee to ask for directions.
Or, if you combine it with the idea of shopping from your phone while at the subway: (video) http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150503629542925.
We can pretend to visit the stores with Google Maps, and then buy the items online while waiting for the subway. In a few years there will be no need for stores at all, we can pull them all down and install Parks instead!
-hps
Don't look into the light.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPgV6-gnQaE
I heard that Google is developing a new program called Google Space. Basically, they are going to send thousands, nay, millions, of 360-degree HD photo capturing deep space probes away from the earth in all directions so that people can explore space from the comfort of their desks. I kid, of course.
I would have loved google maps while walking around there. Disney's app was pretty poor. GPS isn't super accurate, but enough to kind of let you know where you are in the park. Being able to "navigate" to space mountain would have been pretty cool. I'm sure Disney would give them access before or after the park opens. It also be cool if Google maps had Bluetooth or some other kind of wireless access so towers could give your phone even more accurate location.
Old news! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPgV6-gnQaE
"taking internal photos and posting them online brings up some security questions"
What "security questions", exactly? Do the businesses have an interest in preventing the world from knowing what its like to patronize them? Would they prefer to keep as much of the public as possible in the dark about what they have to offer?
What a stupid )(@*#@# statement.
It would be way too creepy any other way.
Can we please update the laws for the 21st century? How about a legal right to not be exhibited without consent.
One day there will be Googleoids walking around with panoramic helmet cams if we don't protect non-notable individuals from exhibition.
Won't be too much longer before Google announces their new "virtual storefront" technology, allowing shoppers to visit stores online in a virtual fashion, picking through actual, real-time merchandise and ordering it online with their credit card (via another Google service, of course). The customer gets a richer shopping experience from the comfort of their living room, the business doesn't have to deal with as much foot traffic, and Google gets a small percentage of every transaction.
Look out, eBay, Google's coming for you.
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That'll be useful next time I want to visit J.C. Penny! .....Bazinga.
"These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based on the order in which I joined" --Homer re:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/01/google-appartment-view.html
Have gnu, will travel.
This seems like a great way for a [criminal|terrorist|other bad guy] to scope out a location without exposing them self to the risk of actually going to the location.
From the summary:
Taking internal photos and posting them online brings up some security questions, but Google says its photographs will 'capture nothing different to what a customer would see by visiting the business in real life.'"
And it also raises other equally valid questions like should I eat lunch today, and how far will it be to the nearest toilet if I get a sudden attack of diarrhoea. Oh wait, no it doesn't.
Google says its photographs will 'capture nothing different to what a customer would see by visiting the business in real life.'
So how's this line of reasoning working out for people taking photos of bridges, electrical substations, important buildings, etc.?
and on 12-mar-2010 people thought this was a joke ...
Gigwalk already collects this data and pays people to take the pictures with their phones using MS Photosynth. I often suspected they might be selling this to Google. Since most stores consider even casual photography against their policy and forbid it, I don't see how this is going to work, not to mention concerns about terrorists scoping out a site. If I took out a camera and starting rotating around with it, managers would swarm me and ask me to leave. I'm surprised we haven't heard this happen on the news yet.
the faces of those sitting on toilets in the restrooms?
Strip clubs
Google will find my lost keys!
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
In 2010, the german magazine "Der Spiegel" predicted there will be "Google Home View" in their comedy section - there is even a video (in german).
Most shopping malls I know prohibit any picture-taking inside, let alone something to be broadcast to the webiverse.
On the other hand, the last time I was actually inside a mall was before telephones had cameras, so maybe they've given that up in the meantime.
Google of course.
Change the layout of your store and you have destroyed some of Google's IP?
Oh, how easy it is to spy on people, how hard it is to keep secrets nowadays. No KGB agent had such wealth of information upon their targets as the potential targets of today are providing themselves with all these social media sites and systems. One wonders what McCarthyism in USA (or Soviet repressions) would have looked like, given all these tools, all these ways to spy on people and all these ways to aggregate data with easy tools and powerful mechanisms to do it that exist today. Are we even starting to understand this just now, as more and more liberties erode and more and more authorities go above the law and put their hands all over the data?
Precrime is being developed by DHS, it will have more data than necessary to come and pre-prison you because they figure that in the future you just may do something they don't like.
Maybe it doesn't matter that you apartment layout can be viewed online, maybe it does.
You can't handle the truth.
Whoever tagged this "panopticon" probably has a half-baked understanding of Foucault from some social theory class they took on their CS major.
This isn't a kind of panopticon.
The panopticon is a kind of prison in which inmates are well-behaved because they don't know, at any moment, whether they are being observed or not.
They visited a gallery a while back where i was having a sculpture show and photgraphed it... Can't wait to see it on Google Street View :) Thats the kind of thing that would be awesome to have available, a walk thru of art galleries and museums all round the world. Dunno that hairstylists and corner stores would be quite as awesome, but still fascinating if you live on the other side of the world. Cairo's shops are mad - would be great to see stuff like that.
The key here is *asking*. As long as they take a polite no for an answer and move along, i don't care what they *ask*.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Little balls of air. What a coup in selling practically nothing.
When things differ, they differ from one another.
There's no such thing as "different than" or "different to".
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
So he can find all of his bathrooms.
And in any case, the "inside photos" are only being taken WITH THE EXPRESS PERMISSION AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE BUSINESS OWNERS
This is certainly the case at CERN where they have been photographing the LHC underground. In fact when I first heard about this several months ago I contacted the CERN press office to suggest it but they'd already invited them. In terms of repercussions my only worry is that someone will mistake a photo-stitch artifact as the initial signs of black hole formation! However I would be curious to know how they cope with the lack of GPS under-ground when stitching the photos together.
A lot of pro photographers seem to be booked all the time and demand high rates. Photography companies also tend to tie up things with contract work and copyright limitations. I don't see why it wouldn't be in google's interest to give well-practiced amateurs a shot at this kind of gig instead of trying to hire somebody established. I have no issues getting a background check, but may be a little short on cash to get bonded to any amount. I'm still sure there's a way to work a contract around that. Also if they want timely photos, they'll be needing lots of photographers.
So more or less, this is what I'd say...
-----
To whom it concerns at Google,
I'm quite good with a camera. Often I do outdoor landscape and urban scenery photography, but it's still only a hobby right now. Is there any way I can get you to look at my Picasa account with you guys and submit one of the folders as a portolio?
As for equipment, I already have a semi-pro DSLR which captures 12megapixels. However if this is not sufficient enough, I can learn new gear fairly quickly as well. Besides I've been doing photography with full-manual capable cameras for long enough, it's not like it is going to be anything that unfamiliar.
I've also done multiple exposure panorama shots and things like time-lapse photography, so learning any special in-house techniques necessary for this type of application wouldn't be that big a deal.
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Anyone know where to mail this off to? Or are they going to be swamped already with the job market being the way it is.
(Not that desperate though. I already have a job. Just looking for something that pays better and relates to a field I'd like to get into.)
There has been quite a bit of Streeview bating already, but I can just see a train wreck size problem heading Google's way when they go inside student dorms.
Whoehahaha - it'll beat the living daylights out of any wardrobe malfunction..
Insert
Tags will be important.
...or Playboy Mansion
Folks this is UGLY. They attest that the view you would see is no different than the view you would see if you were there. HOWEVER, this is precisely the point -- YOU WEREN'T THERE! Let's hit a few scenarios: 1. Man is photographed with a gorgeous woman in a high-end restaurant. Man's wife sees it and reacts insanely jealously to the picture. However, the gorgeous woman was a true client prospect, and the restaurant was part of the norm for this guy's work. Run the scnenario out. 2. Stalking victim is photographed in her favorite restaurant. Stalker sees it, identifies her, identifies location and resumes his escapades. 3. ANY law enforcement person with an informant or undercover person This is claimed to be in the scope of free-enterprise. However, to this guy, big brother just ate another carton of cream puffs.
What I want to know is, how do I get to be a Google Trusted Photographer? Sounds like a fun gig. :-)
I'm hoping they extend this further and start doing trails through the forests preserves. Then I won't have to go out there when the mosquitoes are bad. I can sit at home and go for a nice walk in the woods. Might be good for geocaching without leaving your computer also.
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
I've known many businesses who's had this "service" done for free. But as soon as it came time to put it online, Google called them up and said "we'll do it for a fee". Apparently they've been going out telling businesses that they'd take pics for free but didn't tell them that if they want it online they would have to pay for it.
One things for sure Google never stands still
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