-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Google to impose map API usage fees Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:21:46 -0700 From: Jon Jablonski <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: [log in to unmask] To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]> Do you have a library web application that uses Google as a front-end? If so, does yesterday's announcement affect you? From Andrew Turner at http://highearthorbit.com/google-maps-terms-of-service-and-pay-choice/ Today Google announced that they are enforcing free usage limits on the Google Maps API. Beyond the free limit of 25,000 views per day, sites will start having to pay $4 per 1,000 views. They will automatically charge your credit card based on these usage fees and it’s not clear if you can set a “cut-off” limit or if it will have the similar suprises as overseas cell charges. From the horse's mouth at http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2011/10/introduction-of-usage-limits-to-maps.html To assist in evaluating whether your site is exceeding the usage limits we will shortly be adding the Maps API to the Google APIs Console. Once available you will be able to track your usage in the APIs Console by providing an APIs Console key when you load the Maps API. If you find that your site does exceed the usage limits each day you can opt to pay for your excess usage by enabling billing on your APIs Console project. We will then start billing excess usage to your credit card when we begin enforcing the usage limits in early 2012. I really doubt any of us (well, maybe Rumsey, LC, and USGS do) get more than 25,000 uses per day (more on what constitutes a 'use' here: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html#usagelimits). But I don't know enough about people's applications to judge. There is this caveat on their faq page: "Non-profits and applications deemed in the public interest (as determined by Google at its discretion) are not subject to these usage limits." But how would you like your #occupyEverywhere map to suddenly get turned off because the guy or gal in the tech tent can't convince Google that it's in the public interest? I guess this is another reason to build on top of OSM. -- Jon Jablonski Map & Imagery Laboratory Davidson Library UC Santa Barbara