SmallBusinessNewz

File this one under rumors, but it's an interesting rumor nonetheless. Popular search writer Barry Schwartz says he's heard from a New York retailer called Oh Nuts, that Google went to their store and took pictures of the inside for a new product called "Google Store Views". This would be like Google Maps Street View, but inside stores.

"I was told that they took pictures of the inside of the store, every 6 feet, in all directions," says Schwartz. "They also took pictures of products."

"Google Store Views will allow people to essentially walk into the store, off of Google Street Views," he adds. "So imagine you are looking at this store, and then you can click on the door to enter it, all on Google Maps. Then when you enter the store, you can wall through it."

It's important to remember: RUMOR! There has been no confirmation about any plans for this kind of product from Google, but Google has been sending its Street View Trike into harder to film areas for Google Maps. For example, they have images that let you virtually explore the inside of the San Diego Zoo.

Google has also encouraged requests to send the Trike to other places. There has been talk about Google possibly adding shopping malls, for example. The Store View idea is really not the far-fetched. Of course, it would have to be on an opt-in basis.

It's a pretty interesting idea. What if people could virtually enter your store, find an item by virtually walking down you isle, and click to order it, or maybe click to get a coupon for it. There are a lot of cool possibilities. We'll have to wait and see if this is real, and even if it is, it's clearly in the very early stages of development, and there's no telling how long it would be before it became a standard feature.

That said, Google has certainly been rolling out the local search features lately.