How many of you use an App such as Around Me, Nearby or Yelp? I personally have no sense of direction at all, so the Around Me App is pretty much worn out on my iPhone. I use it constantly! Gone are the days where I would need to print directions from Google route planner.
How many of you use an App such as Around Me, Nearby or Yelp? I personally have no sense of direction at all, so the Around Me App is pretty much worn out on my iPhone. I use it constantly! Gone are the days where I would need to print directions from Google route planner.
On a recent trip to London it was my saviour. Over the last year I have grown a little too obsessed with sushi and was determined to find an excellent Japanese restaurant in London. Using my Around Me App, with a location set and my route planned I headed off with great expectations. After a little too much walking (we opted out of getting the tube) we arrived in sushi heaven. However to my disappointment all the Sushi places were closed on Sunday lunchtime! It hit me a little hard, but thankfully Around Me located a small take away sushi joint close by to get me my fix. Around Me, I salute you.
I, like some of you, may be a little too reliant on the Apps that use Google's API mapping service, so I was not too happy to learn they will be charging businesses for this privilege in the coming year. Will my beloved App still be available? Or will the price of these Apps go up? To be honest, as long as the Apps I use religiously are still available, paying slightly more to download them won't be a problem for me, but will others agree?
Will you be affected?
Google has been keen to emphasise the changes won't hit sites who are light users but those who hit 25,000 map loads per day and more than 1 million sites have Google Maps built in. Ordinary restaurants and hotels shouldn't be affected, which may provide us with some joy, but travel, shopping, business and news sites will be worst affected.
How much?
Sites will be offered a Google Maps Premium which will cost a reported $10,000 a year, or they will need to pay $4 per 1,000 page loads over the 25,000 per day.
Will you site owners agree to the charges, do a deal with Google or hold out some hope that competitors such as Apple might swoop in and undercut them by offering their own mapping service?
What do we think?
There's no such thing as getting something for nothing as we all know, but this is the first time Google has provided a free service and then snatched the 'free' out of it.
Google Maps has become such a relied upon service for businesses with many of them, including some of our clients like Hallmark Care Homes integrating the maps on their websites. Google has the upper hand, knowing businesses will be reluctant to get rid of this service they now provide to their customers.
I probably take these Apps for granted, but now I've had it, I don't want to lose it! I think most companies are going to have no choice but to pay up.
"Google hasn't got to where it is by giving everything away for free, however, the services that it has historically charged for have been in the business and advertising sector (Adwords and Google apps for business).
Google has every right to charge for its services, they are an IPO listed business that are intent on making a profit, but at the same time keeping to its open source roots.
Whilst the limit put in place may seem high, 25K hits isn't a lot for high volume businesses. A business (like a travel site) that uses Google maps and gets 1M hits a day could be paying in excess of $3900 a day for the service. Providers that utilise Google maps will need to make a decision as to whether to stick with Google maps or move to other free service providers.
The other alternative that we may see is advertising appearing on Google maps on the free service as an alternative to paying fees, time will tell..."
Richard Jenner, Project Manager
"I think it is Google's way of trying to sap as much money from the web as possible! Hence why they are now one of the most profitable companies in the world! The map service is second to none so I believe people will just accept it, however 25k hits isn't a lot."
Are you prepared to potentially pay more for Apps?
Do you think you'll lose mapping services you rely on?
Was this inevitable for Google Maps?
Give us your thoughts...
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