As part of the new version of their maps API released today, Google is making the following updates to their terms:
- No page view limits. Your site can get as many page views as you can muster. If, however, your site gets more than 500,000 page views per day, we ask that you talk to us before you launch so that we can prepare in advance to handle your traffic.
- 90-day notice before any advertising-related change. The Maps API does not include advertising. If we ever decide to change this policy, we will give all developers at least 90 days' notice via this blog.
This is good news. The old 50K page view limit wasn’t a major constraint, but it’s helpful for that to be clear. The 90-day notice is also a nice gesture. Seems they’re aware of concerns like Adrian's.
Right now the Google Maps API seems to be used mostly for widget-of-the-month-type projects. It’s been hard to develop robust applications with opaque, restrictive terms. I think Google will be much better off when it provides the clarity and flexibility that businesses need to develop on their platform. Hopefully these changes mean they agree.
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