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Farewell, Google Maps

inderapotheke.de

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Re: Farewell, Google Maps

#71

Post by bflesch »

alrex021 wrote: post #44

In our own experience, we pleaded the fact that those dollar figures are just beyond workable if you consider the fact that we come from a developing country and we're faced with ~20x jump. I.e. it heavily messes with the unit economics. The Google representative actually laughed in our face (via Hangout).

If you get into trouble with your unit economics given such a raise, then you really need to think about your business model. How much value is your business really creating ON TOP of the maps?

I don't want to be snarky, but I think many businesses don't think enough about this issue of value creation.

Re: Farewell, Google Maps

#72

Post by tobltobs »

draw_down wrote: post #42
wwweston wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I've experienced the frustration of having a formerly free service develop paid tiers (and policies that put me in those tiers), of all the changes a software service can make, this is the one that frustrates me the least, or at any rate less than: * shutting down the service entirely because the user base never grew into customers who actually valued the service * changing your terms of service to forbid an ac…

Jacking up the price so far that it becomes prohibitive to actually use, on short notice, isn't much different from shutting it down, is it? In both cases you suddenly can't use the service anymore.

Thought the same, there are not many use cases which will be still profitable after this price increase.

Re: Farewell, Google Maps

#73

Post by GenericsMotors »

atr2 wrote: post #59

That email is fake: they have forged the screenshot. In the first paragraph you can clearly see how the typeface changes to something different (starting with "enterprise-grade") Compare these two "g": https://i.imgur.com/8Ja6pl2.png I've archived the post in case they decide to fix their "mistake". https://archive.is/w2swh

Compression artifact maybe?

Doesn't seem likely they'd risk their reputation by faking correspondence with Google and publishing it in the open.

Re: Farewell, Google Maps

#74

Post by axx »

We switched from Google Maps to OpenMapTiles for the same reason. Running OpenMapTiles via Docker was pretty easy. We bought a license for the Tiles (Europe) and it was a one time fee only.

Re: Farewell, Google Maps

#75

Post by megous »

> Google Maps is objectively the best product on its market, in many regards positioned light years ahead of its competitors.

No. Google maps is an absolute, washed out turd style wise. We have much better local competitor.

Compare this:

https://www.google.com/maps/@50.081478,14.4272906,13z https://mapy.cz/zakladni?x=14.4068130&y=50.0892746&z=13

You can try various zoom levels, and mapy.cz is always better. Much more detail. Much more contrast. Much more visual information. Tourist version of the maps.

I hated using Google maps when traveling in Spain. Sadly they are the recommended way to get public transport info. But I avoid them at all costs. I sometimes print maps when travelling and I can imagine google maps style would be more than useless when printed B/W on a shitty printer, while I could still use mapy.cz maps while low on ink.

Re: Farewell, Google Maps

#76

Post by sweb »

Seems like there is a good chance that all of the Google Maps competitors will raise their prices now too (although probably not as substantially), so it doesn't seem like a fair price comparison until all of the dust settles there. They all probably set their price ranges to be inline with Google Maps since that is the most popular product and there are very few reasons why a potential customer would go with a non-Google Maps product if it was more expensive than Google Maps.

Re: Farewell, Google Maps

#78

Post by linsomniac »

This price change doesn't make any sense to me or the people where I work, unless they just want people to stop using Google Maps on other sites.

You increase prices over an order of magnitude. You give people warning. You give people credits to cover a few more months without paying extra.

What is the end game. If you just want extra revenue, why are you giving them the grace period to switch? Why are you giving service credits to give people another couple months to switch?

So if they want people to stop using Google Maps (businesses, not consumers), WHY do they want reduced use? Is there an outside source changing pricing or licensing? I don't think so, I think Google owns the data.

Re: Farewell, Google Maps

#79

Post by reaperducer »

6cd6beb wrote: post #55
ericd wrote: post #7

"Sudden change of policy by Google, which is directed specifically at startups (as smaller web sites should largely remain below even the new lower thresholds), is surely an unpleasant surprise for us and does not create much trust in Google as a vendor. In the future we would therefore keep our distance from Google Cloud and avoid deep integration with any Google services on which it can pull a similar trick. For ex…

>In the case of maps, there weren't many great alternatives for a long time, due to Google sucking all the oxygen/profit potential out of the field with their excellent free offerings. ianal and all that, but isn't somewhere antitrust- or monopoly- adjacent? I know if walmart moved into a new city and started giving away hardware for free, then waited until all the local hardware stores had been shut down for 10 mont…

I know if walmart moved into a new city and started giving away hardware for free, then waited until all the local hardware stores had been shut down for 10 months, and then jacked up their prices to 100 times what they used to be before going free, that'd be pretty illegal.

This is what drug dealers do.

It was also the plot of the James Bond film Live and Let Die.

Re: Farewell, Google Maps

#80

Post by rmorey »

zackmorris wrote: post #20
ericd wrote: post #7

"Sudden change of policy by Google, which is directed specifically at startups (as smaller web sites should largely remain below even the new lower thresholds), is surely an unpleasant surprise for us and does not create much trust in Google as a vendor. In the future we would therefore keep our distance from Google Cloud and avoid deep integration with any Google services on which it can pull a similar trick. For ex…

Is there something like Amazon or Google shopping with a list of prices for all products through time? Kind of like the Wayback Machine (archive.org) but for products. Maybe having a searchable historical database of everything imaginable and their prices would keep companies honest and prevent price gouging.

This exists for Amazon products: camelcamelcamel.com
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