Google Street View now includes interiors • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Street View now includes interiors

#91

Post by jwallaceparker » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 9:53 PM UTC

joshu wrote: post #67

nkurz wrote: post #42

Here's another one: http://maps.google.com/?q=Scream%20Sorbet,%20Oakland,%20CA This one's my business. They came to shoot the interior as a perk for participating in a "Google Offer". I think this is how they are rolling it out, at least in the Bay Area. To me, the results came out fine, although I worry that it now makes "casing the joint" a little easier. It took them two visits to get it right. The first time appa…

I can't figure out how to get inside your store. I feel a bit like I am playing badly-designed video game. Also, you own a food business!?? I am fascinated by the idea, can you talk more about it?

> I can't figure out how to get inside your store. I feel a bit like I am playing badly-designed video game.

lol me too.

Re: Google Street View now includes interiors

#92

Post by Synthetase » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 9:57 PM UTC

mrchess wrote: post #52

If I were a business I would OPT OUT of this immediatley. The only thing I can parallel this too is Googling your date before the first date. Going in knowing too much can often ruin the fun or the mystery of discovery. Sure it might save you from "bad experiences", but we need bad experiences in life to really value the good ones!

I would readily do without buyer's remorse.

Re: Google Street View now includes interiors

#93

Post by aerosuch » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:19 PM UTC

ww520 wrote: post #85

This actually is pretty cool. Two wishful additions: - Indoor navigation. - Integration of live video streams at location.

There are a few startups working on the Indoor Navigation part: http://www.qubulus.com/2011/06/07/the-indoor-positioning-mar...

Re: Google Street View now includes interiors

#94

Post by aerosuch » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:23 PM UTC

ctdonath wrote: post #30

Over time, the problem of maintenance overwhelms usability. Like the street view, but to a greater degree now, comes the problem of keeping those googlebytes of data updated ahead of looming obsolescence. Cool I can go in a store and look around...but what updates store change or - worse - closure? ETA: puzzled by downvotes. Satellite views can be updated on a regular basis with relative ease by a largely passive sys…

I think the 360 Pano guys have a potential solution for the update challenge: http://www.occipital.com/360/verse

I'm curious what long-term incentive would be for updates, though.

Re: Google Street View now includes interiors

#95

Post by chrismiller » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:37 PM UTC

shalmanese wrote: post #89

andyking wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wanted a service like this. I needed a USB hub the other day, and I couldn't really wait days for it to show up from an internet store. I could search the website of a big (expensive) chain store, PC World, but we have lots and lots of tiny local computer stores, and supermarkets with small tech sections, whose inventory is an absolute mystery unless I was to go and expend gas driving around them all. I o…

This is what Milo tried to do. They found it difficult enough that they sold to Google instead.

Milo was acquired by eBay [1], not Google.

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/02/confirmed-ebay-acquires-mil...

Re: Google Street View now includes interiors

#96

Post by pratster » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:39 PM UTC

andyking wrote: post #72

recampbell wrote: post #55

The most interesting part comes when they start indexing these images so that you can search products (and prices) within stores. The tech is mostly there (see google goggles). Then you can answer the question "Where's the closest store with jumper cables?" Or really, "show me where the jumper cables are." A very big map reduce job, but seems feasible.

I've always wanted a service like this. I needed a USB hub the other day, and I couldn't really wait days for it to show up from an internet store. I could search the website of a big (expensive) chain store, PC World, but we have lots and lots of tiny local computer stores, and supermarkets with small tech sections, whose inventory is an absolute mystery unless I was to go and expend gas driving around them all. I o…

You mean like this search using Google shopping?

http://goo.gl/UIapv

Re: Google Street View now includes interiors

#97

Post by mattgeb » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 11:14 PM UTC

I started a company a few years ago to capitalize on being able do shoot high quality, 360 interiors. Started out shooting exteriors and then Google Street view popped up, so we needed to figure out how to do something different. We developed technology to mass produce high quality 360 panoramas and integrate a social tagging component (click on the shoe in the store to get information about it and buy it or click on a bench downtown and post about the special moment that occurred on it).

Here is the site if anyone is interested: http://walkspots.com/beta/

Long time HN reader, but this is my first post.

Re: Google Street View now includes interiors

#98

Post by kb101 » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 11:18 PM UTC

AJ007 wrote: post #90

kb101 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And while Amazon is stuck with maintaining both computer and physical infrastructure, Google will have effectively offloaded the physical infrastructure to the free market. Not only that, but while Amazon must seek economies of scale and efficiency at every point of the distribution network, Google can leverage the irrationality and inefficiency inherent in a distribution network composed of individual retail outlets…

One of the phrases I've started using is, in the future you don't have to talk to anyone. You see this already with the self-checkouts at stores. You walk in, grab what you want, check out and leave without talking to anyone. This is just the start of a torrent of low level automation. At some point there is not a lot left to do.

What amazes me is that we are seeing this happen around us so rapidly; near-total automation is on the visible horizon.

"At some point there is not a lot left to do" reminds me of the story "With Folded Hands" by Jack Williamson. http://www.powells.com/biblio/61-9780312852535-0

Re: Google Street View now includes interiors

#99

Post by hugh3 » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 11:23 PM UTC

moskie wrote: post #76

gammarator wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Bay Area folks, this sorbet is amazing. Wish I hadn't moved out of Temescal...)

-Step 1: Go to Bakesale Betty's -Step 2: Go to Scream Sorbet -Step 3: There is no step 3.

Find a way to burn the twelve hundred calories you just consumed?

Re: Google Street View now includes interiors

#100

Post by duairc » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 12:18 AM UTC

Haha, wow. I use Google Street View a lot for scouting out empty buildings (I squat for housing). It would be amazing if you could see the inside of them without having to break in to do so!