Google announced on the Lat-Long Blog that images that have been added at the Places page by the owner or via Panoramio are now viewable in a streamline mode:
Today, were offering you a better, more streamlined way to view these photos. With this new feature, you can easily flip through a whole collection of photos and find the sites on the web that have relevant pictures of a given place. Photos that have been uploaded by our Panoramio or Google Places users will appear in high-resolution as an overlay when users click on them. For photos from other sources, you can easily click on a specific photo to see more and visit the site it comes from.
Here is what the pictures look like:
User simply clicks on any of the photos listed in the Place Page to enlarge it. Remaining pictures appeared at the background in a dim mode, user can move from one photo to another easily. Also shows options to Close it or Report inappropriate photo. Photos from other sources are shown at the end of the slideshow in a thumbnail where user has to click to expand them.
This new feature adds to the continued efforts Google is making lately to improve its Places and to encourage business owners to claim its place by giving free trial tags and testing sponsored icons among others.
What This Means To You
If you are not using Google places, its time to start claiming and optimizing your business space on it. This not only offers an open window to reach potential customers in your geographical area for a high volume keyword, it also helps to manage your online reputation.