Just in case you missed the news about the 1400% price-hike:
The announcement: https://mapsplatform.googleblog.com/2018/05/introducing-google-maps-platform.html
The reaction: http://geoawesomeness.com/developers-up-in-arms-over-google-maps-api-insane-price-hike/
I expect that my online maps at Google, Map Channels and My Maps + will soon be toast, leaving gaping holes in this blog.
I may well be ditching the GPS in favour of a GFYG.
THE SMALL(ish) PRINT... (updated 23/07/2016)
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GFYG is definitely the way to go, if at all feasible. I did years ago, not just for maps (I use OS OpenSpace) but for everything. After all they have form - remember Google Reader?. I was a refugee from that service when they canned it because they couldn't monetize it.
I've not seen MapChannels before, this will royally screw them and their users. The number of people, even businesses, that are enmeshed in their ecosystem and rely on it is frightening.
The biggest showstopper is the requirement to supply credit card details in all cases, even for small personal websites that will never exceed the free allowance. I could write a thesis on this company and the reasons to avoid it, but in summary here: don't give credit card details to Google.
I think folk need reminding - they are an advertising company FFS.
@GeoffC - Long time no see, Geoff. I had expected to have to explain the meaning of "GFYG", but you got it in one 🙂
Yup, I remember GR. Not bad, but others which were second-rate back then are now much better than GR ever was - I'm using Feedly which is excellent.
To add to the GR fiasco, Go Ogle pulled their email platform from ISPs a while back... some ISPs forked out for something else... my ISP (Virgin Mediocre) decided in a fit of stupidity to go it alone on the cheap with a home-brew creation which has never worked properly. Email problems on a daily basis for a few years now.
So yes, Go Ogle have form. Bad form.
The way I see it is that devs at, say, MapChannels, will either have to close down or stump up. If the latter, then the costs might well be passed down the chain to small-time end-users like me. TBH, it's not worth my time, cash or effort. I've already re-jigged my map data to cope with the demise of UMapper (which was excellent while it lasted) and I don't relish the prospect of doing it again. Most of the online mapping places I looked at have too low a limit to the number of points which can be imported - they are fine with large numbers of markers but crap with even modest numbers of tracks/routes.
Self-hosting may be one way forward but it's more hassle than I can be arsed to cope with (I have bigger fish to fry), and who knows how costs will change? One thing is certain though - Hell will freeze over before I pay the O.S. royalties for displaying maps which I've already paid for twice (paper and digital).
Looks like the free lunch has ended and the waiter wants to give me a surprise bill and a complimentary glass of the house speciality - Victory Gin with a hint of clove.
One thing to add: the future of OS OpenSpace is also uncertain, I've learned recently. It still works fine but it's not being developed further and it's officially unsupported. They issued a vague statement that something roughly equivalent would be offered to current OpenSpace users in their future scheme, whatever that is, but I suspect it will require a lot of work on my part.
Incidentally, OpenSpace has never cost me anything. I can't remember exactly now but I think it had a certain number of tiles free allowance per day. I have a lot of routes on my site but it has never been exceeded to my knowledge.
Oh dear, all this has got me worked up again. I'm very much into what you might call the 'politics' of I.T. and I have a few more of those acronyms like GFYG: there is GFYM, GFYA, another GFYA, GFYF...
Answers on an e-postcard...
Slightly O/T but FWIW I'm getting good mileage from "one delta ten tango", "wetware problem" and "defective PTT button actuator" when at the pub quiz. Hardly any of the opposition are tech-minded or web-literate so it's like shooting fish in a barrel 🙂