Hi guys,
I assume most of you received an email from Google about changes in the Google Maps API. My understanding of these changes is that Google will only allow further use of the Maps API if you provide them with your card details and in case you go over the limit, will charge you.
Unfortunately Im not willing to give my debit card details to Google so there will be no further support of Google Maps. This will affect dozens of blocks, plugins and main pages, including the setup page (it will not affect all maps, some plugins/blocks use Leaflet maps, which will work fine). This is the second time they changed the terms since I began Meteotemplate, but last time it only required changes in the code.
What this means is that if you are willing to give your billing details to Google, you can use it further, assuming you accept the fact that there is a risk some bot will visit your page and exhaust your monthly quota and you will be charged by google. Or the maps will not work on your page – which is what is probably going to happen in the DEMO.
I can dedicate my time to Meteotemplate, but Im not willing to sponsor it, The domain, hosting etc. is already an expense, but at least I know exactly how much and how often.
I am of course not happy about this, but as you can imagine, this was a change I could not anticipate.
So this will affect radar maps and all the weather maps so that they won’t show up on our sites?
Just a wild idea
possible to hop to open street map ? Maybe not all directly but a migration to that solution ? I saw other scripts dropping Google for that in the past and honestly, maps are good enough for most use
Hi,
there are more map APIs, apart from Google I prefer Leaflet and some scripts do use Leaflet instead of Google. However, whether we like it or not, Google Maps are by far the most advanced and sophisticated maps API and not all scripts created using it can be replicated with another map service.
The other problem is that each map service (Google, Leaflet etc.) uses completely different syntax, so even if things can be achieved using the other system, it basically means starting from scratch.
I do not have a list of all the scripts that use Google Maps, I know it is used eg. by the main setup, climate maps, earthquakes, records etc.
Hi, like you I am not prepared to give my card details to google, maybe if it was just a reasonable annual FIXED fee I may consider it, but the way this is being done any of us could end up with large bills. Obviously this is going to be pretty devastating for many blocks and plugins. How long before they start charging for analytics etc? is this the thin end of the wedge.
They must be short of revenue !!! I don’t think so
Phil