Google Maps Platform • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Maps Platform

#151

Post by SiVal » Thu, May 03, 2018, 4:57 AM UTC

dabernathy89 wrote: post #147

chrishynes wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinking seriously about switching to MapBox. Google's pricing is insane after this change -- $7 per 1000 map views!?!?! Did they add an extra zero accidentally?

For reference - If i'm reading this right, it was 50 cents per 1000 map views before (up to 100k per day). https://web.archive.org/web/20180307020901/https://developer...

I'm working on the design of a system right now that is intended to be commercial if we can bootstrap it with profits. I had already decided to find an alternative to Google Maps because of the risk of getting technologically locked into a completely custom API/service. What, for example, would happen to our profits and bootstrapping plans if Google decided to, say, double or triple its pricing overnight? Big trouble right?

So, here we have people who built around Google Maps wishing the prices were only tripled. I'm not yet sure what we will do, but we'll try to improvise something from less-featureful maps before we'll build a nest out on a Google branch and dare them to cut it off. I'm glad I learned my lesson from the experiences of others before this even happened. This is a great reminder about the hazards of designing around single-source, critical inputs.

Re: Google Maps Platform

#152

Post by sytelus » Thu, May 03, 2018, 5:05 AM UTC

kinard wrote: post #12

WOW, my costs are going to go from about $320 per month to $3,750 per month. Time to find a different solution! GULP!

This won't happen unless you have a huge traffic which usually should translate to revenues that can support it. There is nothing wrong with services that you use to generate profits but have to pay for. Services like maps with 99% coverage of the world takes enormous amount of efforts over many years of sweat by very talented team. I know of countries where government wasn't able to produce good maps for decades but Google was. Currently while I travel, I very heavily rely on Google Maps. It's a pretty amazing service and I have paid more for stupid Angry Bird.

Re: Google Maps Platform

#153

Post by mongol » Thu, May 03, 2018, 5:16 AM UTC

What is the simplest way to self host a map that will serve as bakgrund to WMS data in Leaflet? I need nothing fancy, can do without deep zoom. The usage is within an app so embedding in the app could be an option. I find the mapping landscape confusing.

Re: Google Maps Platform

#154

Post by brennankreiman » Thu, May 03, 2018, 5:38 AM UTC

spectre256 wrote: post #140

NelsonMinar wrote: post #71

Mapbox has an excellent alternative map platform based largely but not entirely on OpenStreetMap data. Mapbox GL JS in particular is a joy to work with and extend. https://www.mapbox.com/ It's not free, but it's very easy to use and the pricing is roughly 1/10th of Google's when you get past the free tier: https://www.mapbox.com/pricing/ Mapzen used to be an alternative but sadly they shut down. However many of their…

I'll tag on to Nelson's post to plug a new geocoding service two of us ex-Mapzen folks started called https://geocode.earth . We offer geocoding, especially autocomplete, with much more liberal usage restrictions than either Mapquest or Google, and some pretty powerful features like address interpolation. As we're still really getting the platform around the geocoder off the ground, we don't have a permanent free tie…

I would be interested in a demo key. Former GIS, now web developer.

Re: Google Maps Platform

#155

Post by tonto » Thu, May 03, 2018, 5:50 AM UTC

derivagral wrote: post #138

theDoug wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any service priced $free or not tied to a credit card tends to see people play at incredibly dumb levels of abuse. Within a month of Gmail going public I remember people already trying to string accounts together as a makeshift multi-GB FTP store. Disclosure: I work in Google Cloud, not on this

For what it is worth, I had a fun college project for a class doing exactly this ("distributed filesystem".) Back before github and dropbox took off, anyway.

Seems like many college os(?) classes tested making FUSE FS systems

Re: Google Maps Platform

#156

Post by spectre256 » Thu, May 03, 2018, 5:50 AM UTC

brennankreiman wrote: post #154

spectre256 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll tag on to Nelson's post to plug a new geocoding service two of us ex-Mapzen folks started called https://geocode.earth . We offer geocoding, especially autocomplete, with much more liberal usage restrictions than either Mapquest or Google, and some pretty powerful features like address interpolation. As we're still really getting the platform around the geocoder off the ground, we don't have a permanent free tie…

I would be interested in a demo key. Former GIS, now web developer.

sure, shoot an email to hello@geocode.earth and we'll set you up

Re: Google Maps Platform

#157

Post by SahAssar » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:00 AM UTC

0x0 wrote: post #48

SahAssar wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> OSM based systems including maplet You mean leaflet.js?

Leaflet is a nice javascript library for slippy maps, but you still need to bring your own tileserver (OSM is not free to embed for anything beyond light usage I believe)

Yeah, I just had never heard of maplet, so I was unsure if that s/he really meant leaflet or maplet.

Re: Google Maps Platform

#158

Post by forcer » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:17 AM UTC

does anyone has experience with here.com ? I did not use yet but was engaged with the sales team (not great).

it seems their pricing is quite comparable with mapbox. more here : https://developer.here.com/plans

Re: Google Maps Platform

#159

Post by mynewtb » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:30 AM UTC

tmcw wrote: post #62

jefe_ wrote: post #11

Does anyone know why Amazon doesn't have a maps offering on AWS? I've heard their internal logistics GIS services are pretty advanced and it surprises me they don't have a GIS category on AWS to the point I'm convinced there must some very specific reason they've chosen not to implement. Companies like MapBox and Carto seem to be doing well, Microsoft and Google have map services, demand seems to exist. Additionally…

Supply is expensive, and running a 'maps offering' is more of a data-collection and data-maintenance challenge than a logistical challenge. Of course AWS probably will offer such a service eventually, simply to complete their Gotta Catch Them All product strategy, but for now they've seemed to focus on things where their value is in software and infrastructure, not in having a 500 person staff of people with the back…

> To the inevitable takes on this, no, it's not just a matter of downloading OpenStreetMap or any other data source.

With services like openmaptiles.com, why not?

Re: Google Maps Platform

#160

Post by bigsassy » Thu, May 03, 2018, 7:13 AM UTC

thecodemonkey wrote: post #119

I just wanted to add that geocod.io is now a viable alternative to Google Maps for geocoding in terms of both accuracy and pricing. We’re going to continue having a no-credit-card-required 2,500/day free limit, as well as the most affordable pricing, without restrictions. Including a plan that allows for unlimited geocoding. https://geocod.io/pricing Full disclaimer: I’m one of the Geocodio founders.

Just wanted to second this. I'm a current customer and have been pretty happy with the accuracy and quality of their data.