Google Puts Interior Business Photos On The Map

Starting today, thousands of local businesses have a little more exposure on Google Maps.

That’s because Google is now showing small, orange dots to indicate businesses that have participated in the Google Business Photos service. You may remember that — it’s the self-serve program that connects local business and local photographers to have professional interior business photos added to Google Maps/Places.

In order to see what businesses on a Google map have the interior photos, you first have to grab Pegman and drag him over the map as if you were looking for Street View imagery.

As you can see, Pegman still indicates where Street View is available with the blue street lines, and now the smaller orange dots show where business photos have been added.

It’s a nice bit of extra exposure for local business owners, a helpful feature for searchers that want to see a place before they visit and — in the bigger picture — another feature that distinguishes Google Maps from Apple Maps, which will debut tomorrow when iOS 6 is released.