Slashdot Mirror
Google Maps API Becomes 'More Difficult and Expensive' (govtech.com)
Government Technology reports:
On July 16, Google Maps is going to make it more difficult and expensive to use its API, which could make custom maps that rely on the service less sustainable or even unfeasible for the people who made them... First, Google Maps is requiring all projects to have an official API key in order to work. If a user doesn't have a key, the quality of the map will likely be reduced, or it could simply stop working. Second, API keys will only work if they are attached to somebody's credit card. Google will charge that card if users exceed a certain number of API requests, which is different for different services. Google will provide users a free $200 credit toward those costs each month...
There are a couple places where the changes might have more of an impact. One is in the civic hacking space, where people often work with government data to create niche projects that aim for low costs, or are free so that as many people as possible can use them... "I think that's what scares people a little bit, it certainly scares me, this thought of having this API out there and not knowing how many people are going to use it," said Derek Eder, founder of the civic tech company DataMade. "I don't want to suddenly get a bill for $1,000."
There's at least three Open Source alternatives, and Geoawesomeness.com lists nine more.
Slashdot reader Jiri_Komarek also points out that Google's move was good news for its competitor, MapTiler. "Since Google announced the pricing change the number of our users increased by 200%," said Petr Pridal, head of the MapTiler team. "We expect more people to come as they get their first bill from Google."
There are a couple places where the changes might have more of an impact. One is in the civic hacking space, where people often work with government data to create niche projects that aim for low costs, or are free so that as many people as possible can use them... "I think that's what scares people a little bit, it certainly scares me, this thought of having this API out there and not knowing how many people are going to use it," said Derek Eder, founder of the civic tech company DataMade. "I don't want to suddenly get a bill for $1,000."
There's at least three Open Source alternatives, and Geoawesomeness.com lists nine more.
Slashdot reader Jiri_Komarek also points out that Google's move was good news for its competitor, MapTiler. "Since Google announced the pricing change the number of our users increased by 200%," said Petr Pridal, head of the MapTiler team. "We expect more people to come as they get their first bill from Google."
Once you kill off all the map competitors, its only natural you would then raise prices.
After years of faithful map overlay on the local public University's weather map had to be replaced because of this shift by Google. https://atmos.washington.edu/w...
https://www.openstreetmap.org/...
You don't have to worry about an unexpected bill if you set your account quota to not exceed the free service. It's annoying that isn't configured that way by default or more obvious to do, but it's not that hard and I've already done it.
This space intentionally left blank
Funnily enough, in the UK we have great mapping of very square meter of the country, thanks to the Ordnance Survey. You can get awesome 1:25k topo maps of literally anywhere you want for the price of a couple of pints. They also allow their data to be used non-commercially under pretty reasonable terms, although their licensing costs for large-scale commercial use are a little steep IMO. Still, they manage to turn a nice profit for the government rather than be an expense, and provide a huge public good.
Of course you guys have the problem that some "small government" retard will say that if it loses money the government shouldn't do it because taxes will go up, and if it makes money the government shouldn't do it because it will compete with private enterprise. Shame.