Comments on: Google Maps – the $10k gotcha.

By: Announcing StartupToDo.com (Project X)

Announcing StartupToDo.com (Project X) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:48:26 +0000

[...] visit right now (as to why a page of a subscription-only site is public, see this post here for the gory details). These are some of the locations of the first 35 members with public profiles (you can stay stealth [...]

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:54:58 +0000

I’m not sure about after the Bing rebranding, but when it was Windows Live Maps, the terms were pretty much similar. In fact, I had many email conversations with Microsoft reps over the charges in relation to map data with one of the projects I was working on.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:05:15 +0000

To finish my comment above…I’ve started playing around with Bing Maps API and am having a very difficult time finding online tutorials, plugins, or anything else to make the programming easier. SOAP from Rails can be painful. See:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1101659/connecting-to-bing-maps-sdk-from-a-rails-app

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:50:22 +0000

@Josh, why do you think Bing Maps will be free?

http://www.microsoft.com/maps/product/licensing.aspx I don’t think Microsoft plans on giving away these services for free. You still have to pay a license fee for it.

@Tim, WRT “Now, if you must log into a closed door system to simply VIEW the Google Map, that’s when you have to pay a licensing free.”(sic)

I don’t think that is the case. In Google’s licensing agreement they state: You may require users to log in to your Maps API Implementation if you do not require users to pay a fee.

By: 47 Hats – So Many Platforms, So Many Options.

47 Hats – So Many Platforms, So Many Options. — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:21:31 +0000

[...] beating up Google Maps yesterday, I’d like to share with you a pro-Google [...]

By: josh

josh — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:09:08 +0000

While we are on the topic of google maps, I have a question:
I am working on an App that illustrates my GPS position on a google map. I have use the standard Google Maps API.
In the US, the map seems to be the same presentation that I would see if I looked for the location using Google’s own website. However, when locating someone in Israel using my app, the map that is rendered is much less granular than when I use GoogleMaps own website.
Any ideas? Is the API map different than Google’s commercial product?
thnx

By: Rick Branson

Rick Branson — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:36:25 +0000

Adam is right here — and its likely that TeleAtlas requires them to do this to get unmetered acesss to their data. If Google allowed you to integrate the API in a walled garden for free, it would rapidly deplete their very lucrative Enterpsie market segment.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:45:31 +0000

I’m fairly certain the reason Google charges for extensive use of their Google Maps API is because they are licensing the map data from TeleAtlas, which charges everytime it sends data to Google. So, Google has to charge you. I did some work on this in the past as well. It’s almost impossible to avoid having to pay a licensing fee to someone for map data.

Good luck.

By: Bob Walsh

Bob Walsh — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:39:56 +0000

DK – I would, but StartupToDo.com means a lot to me, and I’d be setting a poor example to follow! Tim – that’s my interpretation as well; so these two pages will be accessible to everyone, but the rest of the site will only be accessible to paid subscribers. It’s a kludge, but it works – hopefully Google will do the right thing by startups re Maps as they did for App Engine.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:29:14 +0000

My interpretation is that as long as the map is accessible to EVERYONE, you’re good. Meaning, you can charge people to put pins/markers on the map and still use the free version as long as EVERYONE can see the map.

Now, if you must log into a closed door system to simply VIEW the Google Map, that’s when you have to pay a licensing free. Because in that case, it’s more like you’re integrating Google Maps into your own closed door system.

By: DK

DK — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:23:09 +0000

“except during the development and testing phase” – just take a page out of google’s own book and mark your site as beta for the next 5-10 years

By: Bob Walsh

Bob Walsh — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:16:31 +0000

John, Josh, Dion – all good suggestions! If I can stick with Google I will – I really need to focus on coding the last bits of StartupToDo.com rather than recoding working functionality, but it’s good to have alternatives – thanks!

By: Dion

Dion — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:12:41 +0000

You might want to consider Open Street Map, http://www.openstreetmap.org. You’ll have to learn a new API but the terms of use might be more to your liking. Plus you can edit the map to make corrections/additions.

By: Josh Jonte

Josh Jonte — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:05:23 +0000

Microsoft Bing/Virtual Earth offers very similar functionality for free (even for commercial use).

http://www.microsoft.com/maps/developers/

May or may not work for you, but I did a gig where I needed GMaps-like functionality on the cheap.

By: JohnW

JohnW — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:28:21 +0000

Bob, perhaps you should really stick it to ‘em by contacting Bing…I’ll be they’ll give you the access you need for free. Google has lost sight of what it means to be “hungry”.