Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => Ctrl-Alt-Del => Topic started by: bobb on 04 May, 2018, 10:55:55 pm
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So they've made big changes to the Google Maps API. It used to be something like 25,000 calls a day for dynamic maps, now it's 28,000 per MONTH. Go over that and you get charged through the arse. You now have to give Google your credit card details to continue.
No problem, just switch to some other platform, right? But nice Mr Google has given just one month's notice. One sodding month to get everything sorted. Arseholes.
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Being an arsehole appears to be a sound business model...
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If you aren’t the product, you are paying for it.
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Help out a non-techie ... will that affect people who use Bikehike (or other such software)?
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I’d imagine it will affect any web site that uses Google maps heavily.
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I dont see the issue. They are charging if you use their service more than 28,000 times a month or about 1000 times a day? That's not casual use is it why shouldn't they charge.
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Is it per call or per tile? Each call could be loads of tiles, or whatever they call the blocks of data.
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AIUI it's per transaction, i.e. every call to the API, so if you're plotting a route every successive point you add triggers a call. So does every time you drag the route, insert/delete/move a point, zoom, drag the map, search for a town, or generate a GPX. Those are just some of the top-level actions a user might see, but a routing program has to do lots of fiddly stuff the user doesn't see. Underneath, the API has tens or maybe hundreds of functions, and just displaying a route might make a couple of hundred calls: multiply that by the number of chums or members or whatever who might use your site in the course of a month and you're essentially writing Google a blank cheque.
I have an API key and I was working on a routing site for our club. I have no intention of changing to a charge account on those terms, so that has put the kybosh on that. At close range I shit upon them with gusto, because it's hard to judge windage from a great height.
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From the docs:
How are map loads applied against the usage limits for Google Maps APIs for Web?
A single map load is charged when any of the following occur:
A web page or application displays a map using the Google Maps JavaScript API.
A web page or application displays a Google Street View Image API panorama using the Google Maps JavaScript API. If a Street View panorama replaces a map in the same div element, the panorama is not charged.
An application requests a single map image from the Google Static Maps API.
An application requests a single panorama image from the Google Street View Image API.
After a web page or application loads a map, a static map image, or a Street View panorama, any user interactions with it, such as panning, zooming, or switching map layers, do not generate additional map loads or affect usage limits.
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OK, that's better than per transaction but it's still swingeing.
Don't OSM do routing?
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I use Leaflet for my online mapping. Allows you to swap between various different maps. Does not do routing but you can keep Google for that bit. Once route is complete , no need to talk to Google just plot the gpx directly in Leaflet. Cycle Streets also offers a routing api you can use on your own site if you ask for an API key.
https://leafletjs.com/
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Switch2OSM (https://switch2osm.org/)
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https://www.openstreetmap.org/directions
seems to work quite well.
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I use Leaflet for my online mapping. Allows you to swap between various different maps. Does not do routing but you can keep Google for that bit. Once route is complete , no need to talk to Google just plot the gpx directly in Leaflet. Cycle Streets also offers a routing api you can use on your own site if you ask for an API key.
https://leafletjs.com/
Just spent a couple of hours redoing some Google Maps stuff with Leaflet and it works a treat :) Just a few more tweaks and I can fuck Google Maps off completely...
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I shall watch with interest. ;)
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OK, that's better than per transaction but it's still swingeing.
Don't OSM do routing?
Thing is, most OSM implementations that you see out there are still using the Google API. See BikeHike for example, if you switch to OpenCycleMap you're still using Google's zoom and navigation controls.
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Anyone know what the implications will be for users of sites that have GM's imbedded - like RideWithGPS?
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Anyone know what the implications will be for users of sites that have GM's imbedded - like RideWithGPS?
They possibly already have an Enterprise account, so maybe no worries for them at all....