Is Google Experimenting With In-Store Images?
Written by Evan SchumanFebruary 18th, 2010
Google is reportedly experimenting with a new service—to complement its Google Street Views—that will shoot pictures and videos within stores and combine all of the images in its database. If you cast aside all of the out-of-date issues inherent with infrequent store images being shown as more-or-less current, this concept has serious potential. How many stores have you peeked into and, within four seconds, decided this wasn't the place where you want to shop for a particular item? Had you seen an image before driving, might you have saved yourself some time?
Let's flip it the other way. You're in the market for a new couch. Your Google search shows you a page with 35 results and they all, at a glance, seem interchangeable. You've already limited your search geographically, so most of these places (OK, granted, Google's geography limiter doesn't do much) are nearby. Most consumers tend to only focus on the first two or three results and choose from there. But what if there were thumbnail photographs of the insides of all of those stores, sized and positioned so that you could meaningfully flip through them all in seconds? Might that draw your eye to Result 26?
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One Comment | Read Is Google Experimenting With In-Store Images?
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
-Christine
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:15 pm
This has the potential to be a big money maker for store fronts and a big plus for potential customers. I know for a fact that I have already been per-using the street view afforded by Google whenever I am going to be visiting a new business establishment, looking to see how the store is and if there is relative ease of parking spaces or not. A win-win situation. Stores get more traffic and for those stores that do not come on board, well, I would not be going there as they probably are not kept-up anyway.