Google Charging for Maps – Will it Affect You?
Google recently announced that they would start charging for the use of Google Maps. Full details can be found at the Google Geo Developers blog.
The following is an excerpt from the Google Maps API FAQ page:
- up to 25,000 map loads per day for each API
- up to 2,500 map loads per day that have been modified using the Styled Maps feature
If your application exceeds these usage limits you must respond in one of the following ways in order to continue using the Maps API in your application:
- Modify your Maps API application such that the number of map loads generated per day is below the usage limit for each API that your application uses;
- Enroll for automated billing of excess map loads; or
- Purchase a Maps API Premier license
Non-profits and applications deemed in the public interest (as determined by Google at its discretion) are not subject to these usage limits.
25,000 map loads per day is a pretty high number. We don’t think this news from Google will have an impact our customers, but we want to be sure. Tell us, do you think the new Google Map API limits will affect your ClassiPress or JobRoller site? Are you getting in excess of 25,000 map loads per day?
Comments (34)
The change won’t affect me because Vantage isn’t ready. Gonna be banana slug time pretty soon…
Our progress on Vantage is such that banana slugs everywhere should feel safe. But back to the Google Maps subject…
By the way, is Vantage about to be launched soon, I mean by the end of 2011 ?
Regards,
We are on track for that.
*cough* Just in case it slips you might find this helpful…
http://www.nwf.org/Kids/Big-Backyard/Fun/Recipes/Fruit-Snacks/Banana-Slug-Split.aspx
Probably will be a good diet food for the New Year in any case.
Maybe it`s possible to have link and open googlemap??? Or if you change order to the tabs and have contact as first?? Does it count as map is open??
When a page on your site that has a Google map is opened, that counts as a map load. Not sure a link would help you get around it as the Google Maps API would still need to be referenced.
But if u have link with only zipcode open in new window?? Here is link to Blocket Sweden`s biggest classifieds site… Press Visa var just under the picture to the right..
http://www.blocket.se/sodermanland/Attract_gaband_37209348.htm?ca=12&w=1
I’m not sure if a zip code link circumvents a call to the API. If not, it might reduce the number of calls to the Google Maps API but it would not eliminate it.
I wish i had that many hahaha
We wish you had that many, as well.
It widely depends on what how this figure is read. 25,000 maps a day… 1 visitor equals how many maps ? 1 or more ? And what do they mean by modified ? Aren’t Google maps with markers (as it’s the case with JR or Classipress) modifoied maps ? Let’s assume 1 visitor = 1 map :
1. the worst case is 2,500 x 30 days = 75,000 per month that is a very low margin ; after they have an invoicing policy which is based either on a yearly flat fee (around $ 8/9,000 a year) or a pack fee something like $4 /1,000 hits.
2. the better case reveals a 750,000 visitors / month figure
Anyway, and assumed that websites who are supposed to drain lots of people (ads and job), this could financially impact their P&L indeed.
First, Google told they wanted to simplify everyone’s life… and now they are everywhere they want those same people to cash out all their hard earned money… In my case (and a couple of my mates did the same) we took the decision to sell websites to our clients without google maps and charts and… except if the clients endorse the Google risk. If they do it with maps, why not with cufons, charts and so on and so on ?
What used to be a no-brainer for us turns out to be a new jigsaw and for some of us a nightmare…
We would assume that one map load is akin to a page load. If you have a page with a Google map, when that page is loaded that counts as a map load.
The simplest measure is to determine if your site is receiving 25,000 page loads a day. If not, you are almost certainly OK. If you are in excess of 25,000 page loads per day, then you may need more info.
We do not believe that JobRoller or ClassiPress uses the Google styled maps feature but we’ll make sure we look into it further as soon as possible.
Oups !
Sure you’re right. I made a big mistake as I counted visitors instead of downloaded pages.
Even worse then…
As for JobRoller for instance, 750,000 pages / month should be ranked somewhere between 75,000 and 100,000 visitors a month if we consider a job seeker may visit 7 to 10 pages. Not dramatic figures neither for a job site nor for ads (classipress). A client of mine owns a website specialized in hockey news and totalize roughly 6 millions visitors a year…
Sure that Google charge will affect the model. As for me, if you leave us the option to switch off the map, obviously I’ll use it.
Regards,
The limit on Google Map loads is 25,000 map loads per day.
We are considering making the Google Map a widget. This would allow site owner’s to not include it.
Making the Google Map a widget is a good solution.
Can you disable it now or does that require code work?
@fstaff, unless you get a ton of visitors, this change won’t affect you.
@David – It was more for security than traffic. I’m doing local ads, so location isn’t important. Plus, it was showing generic locations anyway. I did find a post to change a setting in PHP to false that removed the tab. Thanks.
will the vantage theme have proximity search features in it ?? are these the advanced search features that you mention :D:D
IMO styled google maps would be when you change the colour of the map etc using the v3 api.
Restyling maps individually for a site would have a greater impact on server load and i guess have a greater cost incurred by google, while it dilutes the google brand a bit as the colors them selves etc are iconic to google maps
Styled Maps Link
http://gmaps-samples-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/styledmaps/wizard/index.html
rather than using custom pins as these are served local rather than through the API.
Would be interested to hear about the search features in vantage, maybe there in your blog i might go check
Love your work
Yes, Vantage search will be based primarily around location.
I am really disappointed with this at tuffclassified.com we will soon break this limit .
With the number of ads on tuffclassified, this looks like a legitimate concern for you. Thanks for sharing.
Pretty soon I will reach this mark 🙂
Yes make it a widget, but also make it so we can use Bing Maps or Yahoo Maps in place of Google Maps. I think having these different options would be good to have. What do you think about this Shannon?
I can honestly say that we would likely stay with Google Maps for the foreseeable future – the code work for mapping can be resource consuming. Alternatives to Google Maps would be a great idea and useful. Perhaps we need to build this in such a way that other developers can provide plugins for other map solutions.
Yes that would be a good idea by making the plugins an open source so that way others could work on them, but how to do this and still keep it valid is another question for your developing team.
Use iframe to open map using google URL directly i think it will work for basic address display
It would be cool to have some kind of alert when we reach gmap´s loading limit in order to disable it and take the widget out. I find this very confusing for every gmap developer or consumer, i hope you can bring us other free solutions like bing maps or any other.
I hope that it’s not gonna affect on my new website.. I expect to have large amount of traffic : )
Guess it’s time more people start using and supporting the open source map which is OpenStreetMap.org
OpenStreetMap is great!
Yeah but the thing is it is just a matter of time before they start charging to use them.
Don’t forget to implement this
http://yoast.com/rich-snippets-everywhere/
Discussion is closed.