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Google Maps Platform

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Re: Google Maps Platform

#221

Post by maxerickson »

jstandard wrote: post #209
lucb1e wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From some basic OSM v Google tests, OSM coverage was much lower for things like place names or speed limits. In which region did you test? The local mapping community can make a night and day difference. In Africa there are places almost in unmapped on Google that are extensively mapped on OSM (Google doesn't give a damn if there isn't money to be made). In western Europe it's pretty good, especially in the Netherl…

> it can be either reasonably comprehensive or a total mess depending on the city or state or something. I'm currently evaluating US coverage and this has been my experience, though even cases with better coverage it still fell short of Google Maps. It's a tough problem in the sense that people have generally gotten used to the excellent coverage of Google Maps, so anything deviating in even a minor way is seen as no…

If you mean business locations and the like, OSM is more or less empty in the US. Cities and towns and similar should be okay.

What it amounts to is that there aren't any openly licensed business geodatabases and there aren't really that many people working on OSM in the US, especially commercial POIs (where people buy data from Yelp or Foursquare or Factual or whatever instead).

Re: Google Maps Platform

#222

Post by EQmapbox »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #148

Does anyone offer a competitive service that computes directions with time-of-day travel times? I built a tool awhile back to visualize commute ranges. It’d be nice to move this off Google Maps API. https://blog.forrestthewoods.com/visualizing-commute-times-3...

Yep mapbox/driving-traffic profile of the Directions API factors in current and historic traffic conditions - https://www.mapbox.com/api-documentation/#directions. As my name suggests, I work for Mapbox :)

Re: Google Maps Platform

#223

Post by elyobo »

dmortin wrote: post #191
coldtea wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously the whole account -- they're concerned with charging for usage, not how one splits it.

Not neccessarily obiovus, because the current quotas are also per project. So if you get a 1000 calls a day then every different map projects in your acocunt gets 1000 calls. This suggests the new free tier can also be per project.

Agreed, not at all obvious. I assumed it was per project, not per account - now I don't know.

Re: Google Maps Platform

#224

Post by EQmapbox »

chrishynes wrote: post #121
corny wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the process of comparing Mapbox with Google Maps Platform. The usage would be for large full-screen maps with lots of interaction. Comparing map loads/views is not apples to apples. Google counts a single map "load" similar to a page view [1]. The number of tiles loaded doesn't influence cost. With Mapbox, a map "view" is 4-15 tiles (depending on how they're styled) [2]. [1] https://developers.google.com/maps/…

That Mapbox pricing page seems to be talking about custom maps... What are the built-in styles considered? https://www.mapbox.com/api-documentation/#styles

Hey Chris, you can make custom maps with Mapbox but you don't have to - here's a look at our core styles + designer styles that come out of the box, https://www.mapbox.com/help/studio-manual-styles/#mapbox-tem.... Pricing is based on transactions for each API. Lots of folks find this table helpful - https://www.mapbox.com/help/account-faq/#what-api-requests-d....

Note - I work at Mapbox

Re: Google Maps Platform

#225

Post by elyobo »

IanCal wrote: post #187
billysielu wrote: post #186

Couple of thoughts: 1. To avoid making a loss due to map costs, sites may have to create a source of revenue which scales in proportion to the amount of maps used. Advertising? Google Advertising? 2. It seems quite easy to attack someone by linking to their map content on social media. Loads of traffic = loads of cost. So sites may need to consider devising a 'mapping cost defense' of some sort.

I don't think 2 would work, we use static maps and they only work based on the site they're loaded from. They won't even work on our dev instance because I've not whitelisted the domain. Unless lots of people are going to your actual site, of course.

I have a project which runs a variety of sites for our network - currently ~900 different domains. Restricting keys by domain name is not really practical for us.

Re: Google Maps Platform

#226

Post by EQmapbox »

tyleregeto wrote: post #87
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…

Mapbox is pretty expensive for small commercial apps, $499 flat rate + usage costs. If your commercial usage is on the smaller side, the new Google Maps pricing looks really good. I was a Mapzen customer, their pricing model was great, very sorry to see it go.

Hey Tyler, I work as a customer success manager for our commercial segment and are happy to say we're willing to work with you on a price that fits your business. If you write in through our contact forms just ask to speak with Erin and we can work something out! https://www.mapbox.com/contact/sales/

Note - I work at Mapbox

Re: Google Maps Platform

#227

Post by EQmapbox »

akura wrote: post #112
outside2344 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using Mapbox - much nicer and much cheaper - check them out.

Is there a places type autocomplete equivilent for mapbox? I can't see anything in their services list

Check out https://www.mapbox.com/api-documentation/#geocoding

Note - I work at Mapbox

Re: Google Maps Platform

#228

Post by EQmapbox »

resoluteteeth wrote: post #206
SahAssar wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Oops. In the process of trying to decide whether to write leaflet or mapbox I confused the names.

I kind of love it :)

Note - I work at Mapbox

Re: Google Maps Platform

#229

Post by [deleted] »

lukeqsee wrote: post #220
dazbradbury wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will be extremely sad to see fun maps projects disappear as a result of this. We're also seeing a huge increase in cost (we are a paying user already) at https://www.openrent.co.uk/ , but I kind of hoped commercial projects would be treated differently to non-commercial ones.

This is a shameless plug for my company, Stadia Maps. We started the company because of situations just like this. We'd be happy to talk about a much more reasonable cost. :) Please email if you're interested: luke@stadiamaps.com or take a look at our website https://stadiamaps.com

[deleted]

Re: Google Maps Platform

#230

Post by forrestthewoods »

EQmapbox wrote: post #222
forrestthewoods wrote: post #148

Does anyone offer a competitive service that computes directions with time-of-day travel times? I built a tool awhile back to visualize commute ranges. It’d be nice to move this off Google Maps API. https://blog.forrestthewoods.com/visualizing-commute-times-3...

Yep mapbox/driving-traffic profile of the Directions API factors in current and historic traffic conditions - https://www.mapbox.com/api-documentation/#directions . As my name suggests, I work for Mapbox :)

Neat!

60 requests per minute is not very many.

Sadly I’m not sure any service will be able to do what I want at an affordable rate. :(

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