Google to Charge for Heavy Google Maps API Use in 2012

[Guest]

Totally Just, If you are running a Site with 25k users accessing it daily, you should be making money! therefore, you should pay for this service, google is a business as well! Free for personal use and small business use, rest must pay!

 

[tomrippity02]

[citation][nom]omnimodis78[/nom]Flawed point of view. Google is not a public service provider that invest its own money to provide people with a product/service, people, as in you and I, are the byproducts, the "end-product" actually of their primary business: advertising licenses. Have you ever wondered how is it possible that they are a multi-billion dollar company and yet those using their search engines, browsers, etc don't pay for them? ... think about that one please. They are selling something that somebody is paying good money for - and if it's not us paying for their stuff, then who is? And what is it that they are selling?[/citation]

I don't think his view is flawed. Yes, we the consumer fund many of their products directly or indirectly, but the point he was making is that Google has provided a lot of services that do not really show a return, justifiable by the expense. YouTube is/was losing money forever. They have probably lost money on Android thus far, although I'm sure long term it will start making them money. Most companies don't provide any services that they don't make a large profit on directly.

 

[gm0n3y]

I wonder if the sites using google maps will just move to one of Google's competitors? That's assuming that Google has any viable competitors. I can't remember the last time I used a different mapping site. Either way, this is probably a good move by Google as a company.

 

[gogogadgetliver]

[citation][nom]gm0n3y[/nom]I wonder if the sites using google maps will just move to one of Google's competitors? That's assuming that Google has any viable competitors. I can't remember the last time I used a different mapping site. Either way, this is probably a good move by Google as a company.[/citation]

Give Bing maps a try. It won't bite.

Agreed a good move for Google. Sounds like they intend to keep it free but are just stemming some losses from a handful of heavy users.

 

[jdwii]

well normal users wont have to pay!

 

[eddieroolz]

You make enough money from ads already, but you still want more cash, Google?

Shame on you.

 

[killerclick]

I love Google Maps but Bing Maps is great too.

 

[ericburnby]

Great move. Produce a product that's useful and give it away for free. Then when companies rely on it and have it integrated into their business model, start charging.

 

[DSpider]

[citation][nom]ericburnby[/nom]Great move. Produce a product that's useful and give it away for free. Then when companies rely on it and have it integrated into their business model, start charging.[/citation]
Well, these 0.35% companies ARE making money off of them. Imagine giving away purified water to whoever is thirsty. And then some douchebags charge money for the water they get from you.

Some high-traffic websites use Google Maps for their contact page. Won't they just put up an image with a link attached to it so you won't use Google Maps on that website? It'll just open up the map in a new tab with coordinates in place, location pins, etc (it's why it has a huge-ass link). But then again, most contact pages probably don't get 25.000 hits per day. Hmmm...

 

[chitikavik]

Looking for an alternative? http/chitika.com/maps We can map locations as you do w/ Google and even monetize w/ ad pins based on our ad relationships. Hit me up Vik@chitika.com