Doesn't really need a blog to translate it.
Sometimes I worry google is too good at things like gmail, maps, etc. and it causes others to not even try to develop competitive services
I was surprised to discover bing maps is far better than google maps at some things, particularly their "bird's eye view" and they find addresses far better in my town where Google will pick the wrong spot.
We looked at other map providers, and in particular Bing and TileStream/OSM. But Bing's cost was 1) nearly what Google wanted and 2) confusing to try and get an actual price because there are about 10 different ways to get a Bing maps license. OSM ended up being ruled out because 1) we weren't confident in the data quality in India and Malaysia and 2) I couldn't find an easy way to geocode.
I wish I had known about the Mapstraction project freyfogle mentioned. I would have seriously considered using it since we were already moving from v2 to v3 of the Google Maps API. Future proofing our maps implementation would have been nice.
Javascript mapping abstraction library that lets you write code once and then switch between different mapping providers.
You're probably better off just using a straight-up real maps API, like the MapQuest open tile API [1], and an open-source framework directly. And for this, use Leaflet or Modest Maps javascript. Not OpenLayers unless you really, really need OpenLayers.
Have a look at http://openlayers.org/dev/examples/ for their examples
I do wonder what the people behind padmapper.com think, which most likely will get charged and has a similar gmap as the service interface.
The really interesting cases will be things like Yelp, where the map is a small feature to the overall service. At 1.5M page views/day that's $1,500 per day...
What's yours?
Any plans for your next move? New map provider? Pony up?
This doesn't help much in this situation, but thanks for all your work on it; I can't think of a single person in my social circle who's moved recently and hasn't used it.
This change is going to force me to revert back to un-styled maps and just hope my traffic doesn't grow above 25K. If that happens, I'd definitely switch to another map provider.
I think the key thing here is that the google map is a backdrop for my website/app, it is not the main feature. I am happy to pay a reasonable price for my usage, but I am not going to be forced to pay an unreasonably high price for it.
$4 cpm is interestingly enough the same as we charge our own advertisers leaving zero profit margin for us. We are now in the process of converting our website to another map provider.
Google appears to be forgetting that their success has more to do with their name at this point than their products. Not to knock Google Plus, but, had it not had the name Google in front of it, it would have been just an afterthought that would have received a half-pager from Alexia on TechCrunch. Making Google Maps free is what led to Google Maps being ubiquitous and that eventually led to Google Maps becoming the defacto map provider in the same way that Google Search is the defacto search provider. Now, even my mom tells me to "Use Goooogle Map". This type of tactic keeps Google on the tip of everyone's tongue ... even the tongue of my computer-illiterate mother.
Although I avoid being an alarmist, this recent change will lead to developers shying away from Google Maps in their own sites and/or switching away from it if they've already used it. This will in-turn expose end-users to other experiences and will gradually reduce people's association of Google to all that is "finding stuff using the internet".
So, yes, what I am implying is that Google should run Google Maps at a loss for the simple sake of maintaining their brand's presence in the online world. Some may say that this is bad business since it involves losing money, BUT, I say it's quite the opposite. Having my own mother be aware of Google Maps without ever having used it herself is testament to the success of the brand.
- One less Google Maps developer
So as long as your call to the Maps API goes out client side, aren't you ok?
Also not a fan of having to go through a Sales rep to find out anything about the pricing structure for Premiere.
Does the following statement still apply?
> Use of the Google Static Maps API is subject to a query limit of 1000 unique (different) image requests per viewer per day. Since this restriction is a quota per viewer, most developers should not need to worry about exceeding their quota. >>
