Google Terminates Free Unlimited Maps API Access
WRITTEN by: Bill Sterzenbach |
categories:
Interactive
So, Google is terminating unlimited API queries to their maps. This essentially means that products/sites that use the Google Maps API will need to pay for usage above a certain limit. To be fair, Google gave the geo development community a 6 month heads up on this one. It's only news now because the change hit in October. This will not have an impact on companies that use Google places in any way that I can see.
What's an API?
API stands for Application Programming Interface. An API is essentially a "back door" that programmers can use to access the features of a piece of software. So in essence, APIs allow programmers to leverage features from other applications within their product.
How does this affect the world?
I try to be judicious in my use of the expression "chilling effect", but it will have a chilling effect on geo developers that have relied on Google products to fuel their creativity in the past. Essentially, coders will begin to shy away from Google tools for fear that they will lose access once their product becomes popular to become useful. I don't know if there would be a financial impact for most developers, but there is something sexy about "free" to the development community. And this time I mean free as in free beer, not free as in free speech.
How will this affect you?
Probably not much. If you are using a wildly popular app that utilizes Google Maps API, the app developer will either pay for the additional access, remove the access, or ask you to pay a small fee for the use of the app. Either way, I don't expect you will find the change "tweetable".
More info from Google:
http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2011/10/introduction-of-usage-limits-to-maps.html
