Does anyone know about this? Is it going to be a significant factor on the web at least for a while?
According to this site, Google will start charging for the use of their mapping APIs-which are used every time anyone accesses a map using those APIs on the web. For many sites, this will be a major expense that free sites can’t pay.
I agree with the map developer, Google isn’t doing anything wrong here. They are perfectly within their rights to charge for their software. And there are alternatives.
I am curious to know if within the mapping community is this a big deal or is it just effecting a few websites.
Here is the abbreviated explanation from the gmap4 website:
June 27th update. Yesterday Google replied to my request for an additional allocation of free Google map API downloads by offering a credit of $1,000 per month for two months. This credit is for the purpose of supporting the Pawnee Fire map I produce. Unfortunately this credit is not nearly enough to cover the hits my fire map gets.
So far in June Gmap4 has been opened more than 717,000 times which means the Google map API has been downloaded that many times. 717,000 - 28,000 (free API downloads per month) = 689,000. The cost for that many downloads at
$7/1000 is $4,823.
I do not bear Google any ill will nor should you. Each and every business is entitled to set the price for the service they provide.
Each time Gmap4 starts the Google map API (Application Program Interface) code is downloaded from Google's servers to the user's browser. Currently Google allows a map to download that API code 25,000 times per day for free.
Starting July 16th the free Google map API downloads has been slashed to 28,000 per month with additional API downloads available for purchase at the rate of $7 per 1,000.
Gmap4 gets far more than 28,000 hits per month.
But if Gmap4 does stop working on July 15th then I plan to bring it back in some form using the free open source map API. Any such new map will not display any of the Google basemaps.
Joseph Elfelt, Gmap4 developer Redmond, WA