Google Maps API - More Than A Map

http://www.morethanamap.com/

by cleverjake • 14 years ago

138 42 14 years ago

morethanamap.com

keeptrying• 14 years ago

Well it shows the Google finally understands just-in-time or opportunistic Marketing.

Their autonomous driving cars are going to change every market out there.

revelation• 14 years ago

This is marketed to (potential and current) API users, not iOS users. They have been getting some competition after their move to charge for API usage.

taligent6• 14 years ago

Google didn't invent nor has a monopoly on autonomous driving cars. They are one of MANY players.

So pretty sure everyone else will be able to change every market out there as well.

timmillwood• 14 years ago

If only there was a native iOS app for this! Time to switch to Android I think.

kin• 14 years ago

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2012/0926/iPhon...

taligent6• 14 years ago

Definitely more than a map. Google's latest revenue source.

So unfortunately as a developer I would rather spend my efforts helping to improve OpenStreetMap.

mattdeboard2• 14 years ago

True, but if you're a business that needs this kind of data for your product, it's almost certainly cheaper to pay Google than to either develop it in-house or make contributing to OpenStreetMap part of your business. Personally, I'd rather build things than pay someone else for what they built, especially if the thing is interesting or "fun"; but reality confronts most of us. Smarter to pay for the wheel than reinvent your own (or waiting for someone else to do it, for free) ... at least, that's the assumption I'm operating on.

taligent6• 14 years ago

I think you misread what I said.

It was that IF I was going to spend money on a mapping API I would rather use it to improve an open platform. Especially for something as key as mapping.

smacktoward• 14 years ago

True, it's more than a map. It's a map AND a monthly bill!

capo2• 14 years ago

It's mostly free actually, and the pricing is very flexible otherwise: http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2012/06/lower-pricin...

watty2• 14 years ago

Or pay a small $10k+ fee if you want to do one of these common things:

* Your site is only available to paying customers.

* Your site is only accessible within your company or on your intranet.

* Your application relates to enterprise dispatch, fleet management, business asset tracking, or similar applications.

taligent6• 14 years ago

It's 50c per 1000 requests. So if you were building a semi-popular website or iPhone app with 10K requests/day it would be $150 a month. In what bizarro world is that mostly free ?

johnjones• 14 years ago

I guess they are feeling the heat with the recent changes in pricing

sidcool• 14 years ago

Very well made.

tsieling• 14 years ago

It looks nice, but it breaks default browser navigation standards. The space bar doesn't paginate, and scrolling to the end of the page doesn't stop scrolling, but forces me back to the top of the page. This is happening in Safari, can't attest to other browsers, but I found it distracting.

untog5• 14 years ago

Cynicism aside, this is very true. I've used a done of different mapping libraries, and the actual map display part is Google's weakest part- leaflet.js and ModestMaps are much faster, particularly on mobile devices.

But on the flip side, I've never found a provider capable of geocoding as well as Google- especially with response times that allow you to make a typeahead address searcher. Google's Styled Map Tiles are still ahead of anyone else's offerings.

bad_user• 14 years ago

Even when you have a concrete latitude/longitude point, Google returns street addresses a lot more often than alternatives, such as Bing. And you're right about the response time, in comparison Bing is extremely slow.

Unfortunately after getting passed the free tier, it gets kind of expensive.

epoxyhockey• 14 years ago

I have been happily using Yahoo's geocoding service, with google coded as a backup service. My application doesn't require speed, so I don't know how it stacks up against google in that regard. I have run into a couple of cases where yahoo's street data was not as fresh as google's.

randomaccount5• 14 years ago

Not worldwide (Australia only) and not as permissive with input format, but geocoderweb.veda.com.au is very fast.

Spearchucker• 14 years ago

Maybe (ok, not maybe) I'm getting too philosophical about such decisions these days, but Google is, at it's heart, an ad company that happens to be really good at tech. Nokia is a tech company that is really good at tech. My choice is Nokia - they're just a closer match to the view I have of myself.

desas• 14 years ago

I'd argue that google is an ai company at heart, that just happens to make a fortune selling ads.

jonknee• 14 years ago

I think Google is a tech company that happens to be really good at ads (which is uses to fund all of its tech). Google didn't set out to sell advertising, it was just a way that they could continue solving big problems.

For example, I don't think Google is spending big dollars on automated cars to advance its advertising business.

awolf• 14 years ago

Google makes 99% of its money from ads, and it has pretty much always been that way.

They're definitely an ad company.

amaranth• 14 years ago

Google is a data company. Their best work is all around capturing, processing, and doing useful things with large amounts of data. This also happens to make them really good at doing targeted advertisements too.

fudged71• 14 years ago

Mapping leads to directions leads to scanning leads to navigation leads to automated cars leads to autonomous bipeds.

And facebook is trying to do to social mapping what google is doing to world mapping.

wmw• 14 years ago

I like the nice scrolling effect within the developer-stories/

molmalo• 14 years ago

Funny thing, in the last story, while it says Brazil, the background is from Women's Bridge (Puente de la Mujer) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_de_la_Mujer

davidlumley• 14 years ago

I can't help but feel this is an attempt to calm people from switching to mapbox (http://mapbox.com/) and OSM. The price is now on par but unless they improve their JavaScript API I can't find a compelling reason to go back to Google Maps.

Google Maps API - More Than A Map

Related Stories