To pay or not to pay - Google Maps dilemma

Back in 2010 when we were playing with friends doing some mapping mash-ups, I've asked one of them "Why are you using Open Street Maps when you have Google Maps for free?", and he said "What if one day Google starts charging for its Maps...", I thought - impossible... until October 2011 when Google announced that starting from January 2012 they will start charging for usage of they're mapping service. 

How much?

Sites were offered Google Maps Premium - a paid for service starting from $10,000 a year, which also offers branded maps and custom uses of Google Maps. If they opt not to pay for this, fees are $4 per 1,000 page loads over the 25,000 per day - or  $10 per Street View load over the 10,000 per day.

'Google Maps will remain free for most users. Only the top 0.35% of sites will be affected by the new pricing structure if they continue to exceed the usage limit of 25,000 map loads per day' said Google spokesman Sean Carlson. But James Fee Chief Evangelist for WeoGeo don't agree with that: “Google says it will affect a very small number of users, but I have heard it will touch 30 or 40 percent of people who really depend on maps for their business. It could cost you tens of thousands of dollars a month.” 

Who will gain on this change?

Since this announcement starting from the beginning of 2012 many services ditched Google Maps for other products. This can in fact be good for other mapping solutions providers. According to comScore, Google Maps had 65 million users in February 2012, a 16 percent increase from the year before. MapQuest had 35 million hits, a 13 percent decrease. Microsoft’s Bing Maps came in third with 9 million users, an 18 percent increase. OpenStreetMaps didn't generate much web traffic, but it seems that it's going to change soon.

Time to say goodbye! 

Starting from February 2012 Foursquare said to give up Google Maps and switched to OpenStreetMap. Apple’s iOS version of iPhoto also gave up Google Maps, turned to the OpenStreetMap. In March Wikipedia has dropped Google Maps for OpenStreetMaps as well. The pricing was "significantly higher than I think anyone anticipated," said Russell Cook founder and CEO of AllTrails - a big social network for outdoors enthusiasts, that partnered with National Geographic Maps and started moving away from Google. In March TripAdvisor quietly switched from Google Maps to Bing Maps, that also charges for using it's API but probably it managed to undercut Google by a sufficient margin to make it worth changing.

Give a thing, and take a thing, to wear the Devil's gold ring.

"Deep down I think the developer community knew that at some point the Google APIs they were using would stop being free," Russell Cook said, "but I don't think they ever expected the price gouging. My personal opinion is that Google has every right to charge for the services they are providing, but their recent actions have been very short sighted". In fact Google was one of few mapping services that offered usage if their data for free. It's not the only service Google charges for - using Google's office services at a corporate level is already a paid-for service - but it's among the first times the site has offered something for nothing then gone back.

The Google Maps API product manager, Thor Mitchell, commented on the change: "We understand that the introduction of these limits may be concerning," he stated. "However, with continued growth in adoption of the Maps API, we need to secure its long-term future by ensuring that even when used by the highest volume for-profit sites, the service remains viable."

Conclusions

In fact for most of us it doesn't change much. For regular users Google Maps will be for free. Now Google has a difficult task to inspire a new class of Maps apps whose businesses aren't dependent on free data, that might be beneficial for the end-user. Meanwhile the competition on the market will surely work for the favor of all of us... and especially for OpenStreetMaps, whose  founder - Steve Coast has recently landed a job at Microsoft, that is already supporting the OSM project with map data and other resources.


sources:
ReadWriteWeb, TechSpot,

Google LBS strategy - pushing forward the industry.

Google is pushing forward it's location-based features. Two days ago with the latest Google Maps update on Android market (v 5.12.0) it added live nearby events layer to Place pages in New York, San Francisco, Paris, Zurich, and London, making it easier for residents and tourists to find something to do while being on the move. Google seems to be accelerating it's LBSs by gradually adding new functionality...
It made me think about consequences of Google LBS strategy for the LBS market and it's players. 

Google location-based strategy

“There is something profound about location and mobile technology,” said Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of
consumer products at SXSW Interactive Festival in March 2011.  Mayer divulged as well interesting statistics - 40% of Google Maps usage is actually through mobile, which adds up to around 150 million

Google Earth Builder

Google has just announced new cloud service for geospatial data that will be available to the public in June 2011 (UP-DATE: on the 12th of September I received email from Google that they "are excited to make Google Earth Builder commercially available later this year" - so the it seems that they have a delay in lunching the service). With Google Earth Builder organizations can upload and manage spatial data from multiple departments. Costs of investment in spatial databases and GIS software are very often significant. There is as well problem of visualizing and analyzing data remotely on mobile devices. Such technologies exist however they are not available to regular user. Google Maps and Earth revolutionized mapping and the way how people use it. Users know it. They are not affright of it.

So what does Google Earth Builder offers?


Create Custom Map Layers

• Process complex geospatial data quickly and efficiently - for streamlined viewing of large geospatial data files.
• Access Google's extensive basemap - Imagery, roads, points of interest from Google to complement your data investments.
• Create custom map layers for Google Earth and Maps - with Google Earth Builder’s intuitive map creation tools.

Manage Geospatial data

• Scale services for traffic spikes - Google’s cloud platform scales to support unanticipated spikes in user traffic.
• Reduce server Costs - significantly lower IT costs and eliminate time maintaining, scaling and updating software and servers.
• Control source data and attribution - set attribution on custom map layers and share access to the data without sharing the raw data files.

Share custom Google Earth and Maps Layers

• View maps anywhere, anytime - laptop, desktop, home, work, mobile, etc.
• Share maps across departments - custom Google Earth and Maps layers can be shared with one person or a group of people.
• Visually analyze geospatial data - without required technical GIS training to create a map

So how can your organization benefit from Google Earth Builder?

• Anytime, Anywhere Access: view your maps from any computer or Internet-enabled device
• Speed & Scale: process your complex geospatial data quickly and efficiently; effortlessly scale to manage traffic spikes (e.g., in case of emergency)
• Lower Cost: significantly reduce IT costs and eliminate time spent buying, maintaining and patching software and servers
• Constant Innovation: just refresh the browser for the latest features
• Secure Storage & Recovery: benefit from Google’s industry-leading security; no longer worry about storage limits and backups; data backed up to multiple data centers for near-instant recovery

To check for more details watch video form Where 2.0 2011 Conference:

source: http://www.google.com/enterprise/earthmaps/builder.html