

Google Maps – the $10k gotcha - timf
http://www.47hats.com/?p=1329

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vaksel
Google isn't omniscient. You probably won't get noticed by them until you are
large enough to pay their fee. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Google
never enforces this $10K rule, and that it's there just in case.

And if you do get noticed, and they decide to enforce the rule, nothing is
stopping you from making that one feature free.

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dca
They're not omniscient, but I wouldn't count on that. It wouldn't be all that
hard to collect a unique list of URL's and have an intern go through a bunch
of them per day. The list could probably be augmented pretty easily with some
analysis of the page content to detect fee related text, and they certainly
have the technology to make that happen. They can narrow it down pretty
quickly too based on what key your using to access the API.

The terms are pretty clear. Better to pay it if your using it and charging for
it up front rather than try to get clever and get caught later and potentially
have legal fees to pay on top of it IMHO.

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vaksel
if Google did this before, I'm sure people would have heard about it by now.
Right now it seems like they are choosing to ignore this.

Noone really reads terms of service, so I'm pretty sure the $10K fee wouldn't
stick. What would probably happen when you'd get caught, is you'd get an email
from Google telling you that you've broken their ToS and that if you want to
continue using their service you'd need to either a) start paying $10K/mo or
b) make the service public

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wmeredith
Something clearly spelled out in the terms of use of the API can hardly be
called a _gotcha_.

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dpcan
Agreed. There's no surprise to me here that Google would want a piece of the
action if you are making money with their freely available services.

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ianbishop
Couldn't you just make the map publicly available for both users and non-
users? Your fee/subscription-base isn't for the map itself. The map simply
serves as a manner to visualize data.

I have a feeling that the many, many real estate companies whom use Google
maps aren't all paying for the API, despite it being a commercial venture.

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DannoHung
Yeah, but they offer the mapping aspect for free (far as I know). If the
mapping is behind a paywall, I think that's where the pricing starts.

~~~
ianbishop
That's why I was saying you should make it available to both users AND non-
users. That way if Google inquires (which I truly doubt they ever would),
there is no way they can say the map is restricted to subscription/fee.

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eli
_shrug_

Seems pretty fair to me. Not especially friendly to startups, but definitely
fair.

~~~
diego
It's not about fairness. The question from the point of view of Google is
whether their pricing is optimal. Are they missing out on a significant market
who would pay less for a cheaper option but not $10k for the Premier service?
Only they know that.

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noelchurchill
What about iphone apps? Say you make an iphone app that uses the google map
tiles and api, but you want to charge $.99 for this app, are you supposed to
pay the $10k license fee??

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qeorge
Great question. IANAL, but my reading of it would say yes.

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wayne
If you want business-friendly maps, Microsoft's MapPoint terms were very
startup-friendly last time I checked. You just pay as you go. The downside is
you need to talk to a salesguy: <http://www.microsoft.com/maps/>

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esonica
This very issue stopped me dead in my tracks when quoting for a recent
project. I was put in touch with an Australian sales manager, from a 3rd party
acting on behalf of google (this made me wary)

All communications mentioned 10k starting cost, with a final cost given when I
provided detailed project objectives. This was not an option, as the project
was confidential.

Suffice to say, I walked away from the project as I could not provide a cost
to the client without allowing detailed project info to be passed on to a 3rd
party. Also it seemed they were going to assess the project to see how much
they could get away with charging me.

They put me in touch with : <http://dmsbt.com/>

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hopeless
I was actually surprised by this and I'm sure there are plenty of intranet or
small scale subscription services using Google Maps without paying.

Does Microsoft or Yahoo offer more startup friendly terms?

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staunch
The problem is that it's such a huge jump from $0 to $10k. That's the part
that feels like a "gotcha". It's also just a huge number, even for a company
with funding.

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adharmad
Google has the same issue with the Google Apps for your domain. The basic
version is free (except for domain name registration fees) for 50 users with
similar storage/features as gmail. But the business version is $50/user/year.
The costs can very easily escalate into thousands.

~~~
costan
I would argue that if your company has 50 people, you should already be
budgeting for infrastructure, and the sudden jump in costs shouldn't take you
by surprise. And $50/user/yr is still a hard-to-beat price if you're making
good use of the package.

