Google coming to Hanover, Gettysburg to capture interior of local businesses

The Internet company's 'Street View' photographers will be in the area Aug. 12-14 to get pictures of local businesses.

A screen capture of Google's Street View from downtown Hanover on July 23, 2013. On Aug. 12-14, the online company s photographers will be in Hanover and Gettysburg to bring Street View technology inside local businesses. (THE EVENING SUN)

Google is coming to town.

On Aug. 12-14, the online company's photographers will be in Hanover and Gettysburg to bring ?Street View? technology inside local businesses.

The new program from Google creates a 360-degree interactive tour of the interior of businesses.

Through the end of June, Google had photographed approximately 35,000 businesses in the United States and 120,000 worldwide, according to Jim Hilker, marketing manager and program director for Google's central Pennsylvania and central New York region.

To create the virtual interior tour, a photographer mounts a 360-degree camera that takes 12 pictures on a tripod. Multiple tripods are placed throughout a business, snapping dozens of photographs. The images get stitched together in Google's server to make for what Hilker called a ?seamless virtual tour.?

?Feedback has been extremely positive,? Hilker said of what he has heard from the 500 or so merchants within his region that have had their businesses photographed. ?I haven't heard a single negative or dissatisfied report.?

Google's new project a real inside job

The price tag for the enhanced viral presence

varies, hovering in the $350 to $1,000 ballpark for a standard business. Five tripods typically cover 800 to 1,000 square feet of space, Hilker said, which takes about 30 minutes to be photographed. A large shopping mall in New York required 460 tripods and cost $20,000, the program's biggest project to date, he said.

The company started a testing phase in 2008 and the program became fully functional last year. Once photographed, the business' images are online within about a week.

While the Google virtual tour is linked to the business' Google search link, the business owner can also use that link on his or her website or social media pages, Hilker said.

?Some businesses have had us come back two or three more times to expand it and make it bigger for them,? he said. ?It visually enhances their Google presence and sets them up very nicely.?

Hilker guessed his photographers will get to between 30 and 40 businesses in the three days they will be in Hanover and Gettysburg. He said a photographer can do about eight businesses in a day.

Google's trip to the Adams County area is part of the company's comprehensive effort to branch out of the bigger cities and photograph businesses in rural communities, he said.

Hilker said his team of photographers will be sweeping the central part of Pennsylvania this summer, stopping in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Lancaster and State College before heading to the northwestern part of the state.

Merchants interested in having a Street View photographer capture their business can see examples and sign up at www.SeeInsidePA.com. Businesses will be examined for eligibility under Google's program guidelines and then contacted to discuss the program details and schedule the photo shoot. Contact Jim Hilker at places.mobile@gmail.com.

mwalters@eveningsun.com; 717-637-3736, ext. 147; Twitter: @walt_walters

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Source: http://www.eveningsun.com/news/ci_23715488/google-coming-hanover-gettysburg?source=rss_viewed

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