# Important changes w/ Google Maps **URL:** \ **Category:** RapidWeaver Classic\ **Created:** [May 3, 2018, 1:00pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003 "2018-05-03T13:00:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![therealmf](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/therealmf/32/179_2.png) [@therealmf](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/therealmf)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 1:00pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/1 "2018-05-03T13:00:44Z")
Today I received an email from Google regarding the business model for Google Maps. I haven’t understood all implications but from what I can see it looks like serious monetarization of what used to be a free service up to now. It might be time to move on. Here’s the message: "Hi, Today we are announcing important changes, including our new name - Google Maps Platform, a simplified product structure, pay as you go pricing for all, and more. Please take a few minutes to review the announcement to familiarize yourself with the upcoming changes. We would like to highlight a few updates that may impact your implementation. Beginning June 11th, we are launching our new pricing plan and providing all users access to support. We’ll continue to offer a free tier — all developers will receive $200 of free monthly usage of our core products. In addition, this change will require you to enable billing and associate it with all of your Google Maps Platform projects. Creating a billing account helps us better understand your usage so we can continue developing helpful products. It also allows you to scale easily with less downtime and fewer performance issues if your product grows beyond the $200 of free monthly usage. For additional visibility and control you can set daily quotas or billing alerts." ---
**Author:** ![zeebe](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/zeebe/32/22007_2.png) [@zeebe](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/zeebe)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/2 "2018-05-03T13:28:30Z")
Have not seen this email, but a couple things to think of. 1. Is this an email from Google? Check the email address. 2. If there is a link, be sure the link is an actual Google link. I say this because my parents recently got an email from Apple telling them that they paid $75 for Pandora on their iTunes account. Of course, Apple does not have Pandora on the App Store, but my dad logged into the site as it looked like an Apple site. We found out later that it was phishing for emails and logins. Thank god my dad had two-factor authentication turned on so they could not get access to his account. Just making sure you have checked that this is real. ---
**Author:** ![therealmf](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/therealmf/32/179_2.png) [@therealmf](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/therealmf)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 1:33pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/3 "2018-05-03T13:33:11Z")
Yes, it is an authentic mail. No phishing. Here’s the statement on Google’s site: > **[Introducing Google Maps Platform | Google Cloud Blog](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/maps-platform/introducing-google-maps-platform?utm_source=em-anncmt&utm_medium=em&utm_campaign=fy18-q2-global-adhoc-email-cs-maps_none_maps_spicestandardplannobilling&utm_content=global%7Cen%7Chybr%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C)** ---
**Author:** ![zeebe](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/zeebe/32/22007_2.png) [@zeebe](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/zeebe)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 1:59pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/4 "2018-05-03T13:59:05Z")
OK, glad to know that. Just was checking. ---
**Author:** ![DaveFox](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/davefox/32/129_2.png) [@DaveFox](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/DaveFox)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 2:55pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/5 "2018-05-03T14:55:21Z")
Looks like a move to OpenStreetMap for my sites is imminent… ---
**Author:** ![instacks](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/instacks/32/23339_2.png) [@instacks](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/instacks)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 4:07pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/6 "2018-05-03T16:07:24Z")
> [@DaveFox](#): > > OpenStreetMap > **[inStacks Software | OpenStreetMap Stack - Integrate Free Maps](https://instacks.com/stacks/openstreetmap/)** > > With OpenStreetMap Stack, you are easily able to integrate free maps into RapidWeaver projects. Mark unlimited points on your map. ---
**Author:** ![DaveFox](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/davefox/32/129_2.png) [@DaveFox](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/DaveFox)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 4:19pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/7 "2018-05-03T16:19:45Z")
😉 Extra characters to… ---
**Author:** ![TechBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@TechBill](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/TechBill)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/8 "2018-05-03T16:26:02Z")
I wouldn’t be surprised if reCHATCHA is next … ---
**Author:** ![robbeattie](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/robbeattie/32/78_2.png) [@robbeattie](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/robbeattie)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 5:42pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/9 "2018-05-03T17:42:44Z")
I bet Gmail will come at some point as well, unless they’ve specifically said that it will always be free. ---
**Author:** ![Nigel](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/nigel/32/142_2.png) [@Nigel](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Nigel)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 8:08pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/10 "2018-05-03T20:08:14Z")
How does Open Street maps fare with regards to GDPR? Do they load without cookies? I did see a German thread about them and google maps but couldn’t get it translated. ---
**Author:** ![therealmf](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/therealmf/32/179_2.png) [@therealmf](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/therealmf)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 8:21pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/11 "2018-05-03T20:21:22Z")
Basically no difference to GoogleMaps. Maybe (if it is true what they claim) what they do with the data might be different. But regarding cookies and IP addresses they collect them as well. ---
**Author:** ![instacks](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/instacks/32/23339_2.png) [@instacks](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/instacks)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 8:32pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/12 "2018-05-03T20:32:39Z")
You will be soon able to load it with @willwood 's Cookie 🍪 Manager 👍 ---
**Author:** ![Nigel](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/nigel/32/142_2.png) [@Nigel](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Nigel)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 9:59pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/13 "2018-05-03T21:59:16Z")
That’s good. Or I’ll use a static map picture! ---
**Author:** ![joeworkman](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/joeworkman/32/23780_2.png) [@joeworkman](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/joeworkman)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 9:08pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/14 "2018-05-06T21:08:39Z")
My Google Maps stack should not be affected by this change at all. While the static maps API that I use is affected by these changes, I heavily cache the image so that we don’t need to query google on every page load. Therefore, you will never hit the 25k limit in a 24 hour period. ---
**Author:** ![SanityFox](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/sanityfox/32/4023_2.png) [@SanityFox](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/SanityFox)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 5:24am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/15 "2018-05-09T05:24:59Z")
Haha… if they charged for Gmail they’d lose so much free data that they currently parse for marketing. Don’t worry, gmail will always be free and totally compromised. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![robbeattie](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/robbeattie/32/78_2.png) [@robbeattie](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/robbeattie)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 7:23am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/16 "2018-05-09T07:23:23Z")
I know what you mean but I can’t believe there’s not someone up in Google Towers who hasn’t pitched it. $1.99 a month. Be handy little extra revenue stream. 🕶 ---
**Author:** ![Phi](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/phi/32/3858_2.png) [@Phi](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Phi)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 7:47am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/17 "2018-05-09T07:47:49Z")
“Don’t be evil”… ---
**Author:** ![system](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/system/32/25301_2.png) [@system](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 5:47pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/important-changes-w-google-maps/20003/18 "2018-06-08T17:47:53Z")
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