[LTER-im] Google Maps API to require credit card?
Wade Sheldon
sheldon at uga.edu
Tue May 22 13:37:28 PDT 2018
Hi all,
I exchanged some emails with the Google Cloud Platform enterprise group laying out the billing problems, and after clarifying a few issues in a back-and-forth I got an interesting email:
~~~
Hi Wade,
Thank you for your time, please read our Existing User Guide, where you will find new keyless usage policies, changes to APIs, FAQs, new Terms of Service and what steps you will need to take to avoid service disruption. Please also visit the Google Cloud Platform Console <https://console.cloud.google.com/>to understand your current API usage and estimate your new monthly spend. You can also review the new pricing table <http://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/pricing/sheet>for rate details.
By enabling billing, developers will receive $200 of free monthly usage of our core products. ***Even if you do not enable billing we will still honor the $200 credit*** however if you go above that amount I strongly suggest you to speak with our Partners to offer you other forms of payments.
If you need assistance during setup or need professional services and support, please feel free to reach out to one of our certified Google Maps Platform Partners <https://enterprise.google.com/maps/partners/>.
Francisco
Business Solutions Strategist.
~~~
So my take is that if you have an API and key neglect all the prompts to set up a billing account you still get your $200 worth of free use and it will continue to work, but if you did slip over your app would fail (like it would now with >20k maps/day). I can certainly live with that. So it's possible just ignoring the issue might be a valid strategy! Given everything else I've got going on I guess we'll just try that wait-and-see approach.
Wade
On 5/15/2018 3:25 PM, Elizabeth Dobbins wrote:
> Hi;
>
> At the IM meeting, John suggested that a debit card would be accepted. I got a pre-paid debit card and tried it out, but unfortunately, pre-pard debits cards aren't accepted.
>
> Leaflet sounds like a good solution.
>
> Liz
>
> On Tue, May 15, 2018 at 3:06 AM, bohms <bohms at msu.edu <mailto:bohms at msu.edu>> wrote:
>
> Hi Liz,
>
> Since we are just using it for a "we are here" page, I'm going to switch over to mapbox and leaflet, just to avoid any issues.
>
> Thanks
> --
> Sven Bohm -.- ..-. --
>
> On 14 May 2018, at 13:48, Gastil Gastil-Buhl wrote:
>
> Hi Liz,
>
> Our department does not have a solution yet. Other research groups besides LTER here also have google map apps.
>
> Has anyone yet found a workaround? I am sure we all care but we just are not going to pile on with the same "nothing yet here". Thus the silence, I am guessing.
>
> Gastil
>
> PS see you all at noon pacific. If we do not yet have a solution to the google maps credit card dilemma before ASM, that might be a topic?
>
> On Mon, May 14, 2018 at 10:44 AM, Elizabeth Dobbins <eldobbins at alaska.edu <mailto:eldobbins at alaska.edu>> wrote:
>
> Hi;
>
> Wanted to update everyone on what I've found out. I was contacted by T-Science but it never came to anything. They want to deal with sites with a lot of traffic, so I don't qualify. I never even got as far as a sales pitch!
>
> This thread has been very quiet, except for me. Has anyone else looked into it? Does anyone's university care? I'm finding from asking around that no one knows about it.
>
> Liz
>
> On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 3:36 PM, Elizabeth Dobbins <eldobbins at alaska.edu <mailto:eldobbins at alaska.edu>> wrote:
>
> Margaret;
>
> I got the sense talking to the Google sales person that it hadn't occurred to them that users might be in our situation. She stressed the $200 credit until I made it clear that a credit is irrelevant if we can't use the billing model. They are thinking of individual (the $200 credit) or enterprise ($$ for them) users. Even the fact that I use it on a web page as opposed to a mobile app blew her mind.
>
> It couldn't hurt to talk to them. She was friendly and eager to help. I hope seeking info and giving them feedback will be helpful. But they are so big, I worry the message can't get through.
>
> Liz
>
> On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 2:59 PM, Margaret O'Brien <margaret.obrien at ucsb.edu <mailto:margaret.obrien at ucsb.edu>> wrote:
>
> Hi Liz, et al -
> Well, we at SBC (at UCSB) are certainly affected! do you get feeling that we should all voice our concerns independently?
>
> I am following up with our sys-admin here. He had not heard of it yet -- but is already checking with folks at the campus level.
>
> Margaret
>
> Margaret O'Brien
> ORCID: 0000-0002-1693-8322
> Information Management
> Marine Science Institute, UCSB
> Santa Barbara, CA 93106
> 805-893-2071 (voice)
> http://environmentaldatainitiative.org <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__environmentaldatainitiative.org&d=DwMFaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=c7vhM4vWnwn2YNj100OZPw&m=oMTaL_Nl-w3V8cL4tAIRAvaUqxuW4FGH5WuKLx2wfZg&s=7kzex72wiVRCsEYwAI1If9RmXbnjvPK6sxJp1lqFs1o&e=>
> http://sbc.marinebon.org <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__sbc.marinebon.org&d=DwMFaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=c7vhM4vWnwn2YNj100OZPw&m=oMTaL_Nl-w3V8cL4tAIRAvaUqxuW4FGH5WuKLx2wfZg&s=t3DFfI0JejGi4JGTA2JNBpOEM3ePSRkKMgjIezSl2W4&e=>
> http://sbc.lternet.edu <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__sbc.lternet.edu&d=DwMFaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=c7vhM4vWnwn2YNj100OZPw&m=oMTaL_Nl-w3V8cL4tAIRAvaUqxuW4FGH5WuKLx2wfZg&s=muiYyOl8_R9dmrsMwxJd7-73PoJt0tmi36_96bILFjo&e=>
>
>
> On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 3:39 PM, Elizabeth Dobbins <eldobbins at alaska.edu <mailto:eldobbins at alaska.edu>> wrote:
>
> Hi;
>
> I investigated this by clicking the "Contact Sales" button on the web page you mentioned. I had a long discussion with a nice lady in Atlanta wherein I impressed upon her that 1) for 10 years, my use of Google Maps has been integral to the scientific research I do, and 2) the University is not set up for billing this way. She mentioned that other products have an "edu model", but Maps doesn't because this is a new system. She took my concerns to a meeting where they agreed that many people use Maps the way I do at universities. She said they would consider including an edu exemption in the Maps pricing depending on how many other people contact them with concerns like mine.
>
> In the meantime, she has forwarded my case to a 3rd party resource - T Science? They partner with Google to provide other billing options, but that's all I know so far.
>
> Anyone else having experiences in this strange new world?
>
> Liz
>
> On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 3:04 PM, Elizabeth Dobbins <eldobbins at alaska.edu <mailto:eldobbins at alaska.edu>> wrote:
>
> This is very distressing. I've contacted Google to see what my options are.
>
> Liz
>
> On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 2:13 PM, Wade Sheldon <sheldon at uga.edu <mailto:sheldon at uga.edu>> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> For those (probably most) of you employing Google Maps for your websites, I just received notice that the services are being consolidated under a "Google Maps Platform" and all use of the JavaScript API will require an API key linked to a credit card and billing account, which is a non-starter for us and I suspect most other institutions. There's $200 of free use and tools to set quotas to avoid going over, but we simply can't deal with CC billing at UGA for something like this.
>
> Here's the gist:
>
> "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."
>
> The guide for existing users (https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/user-guide/ <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__cloud.google.com_maps-2Dplatform_user-2Dguide_&d=DwMFaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=c7vhM4vWnwn2YNj100OZPw&m=oMTaL_Nl-w3V8cL4tAIRAvaUqxuW4FGH5WuKLx2wfZg&s=WY_VwY4iJMSSarUBCXEb6COLbv4r0UJ6b_l6OwkXzIg&e=>) indicates they are supposedly "expanding support for non-profits" so there are potentially work-arounds, at least at the institutional level, but not a hassle we really need just to keep our stuff running.
>
> More of the high cost of using free stuff I guess.
>
> Anyway, let us know if anyone hears anything different on this topic, or finds a work-around, and we'll be researching the non-profit angle this month.
>
> Sigh....
>
> Wade Sheldon
> GCE-LTER
>
>
>
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