I received a tip from a New York retailer named Oh Nuts, that Google came to their store to take pictures for a new Google Maps product named “Google Store Views.” I was told that they took pictures of the inside of the store, every 6 feet, in all directions. They also took pictures of products.
Sounds like that would be an impossible task...
Also, “why?” — It seems like a neat gizmo that some stores would want for advertising purposes (and maybe pay big bucks for), but like it wouldn’t be actually useful. When I’m in a store, a lot of effort can be involved in figuring out where the thing I want to buy is — with a catalog or web site it’s usually much easier. This seems like reproducing a not useful part of the in-store experience.
Presumably it’s to allow you to get an idea of whether the store is worth visiting without having to actually go there. I could imagine finding it useful.