The Google Maps API will be charging for sites that use more than a certain number of requests. Image: Flickr / MoneyBlogNewz / CC-BY
As a tech giant that handles billions of searches a day, even the smallest changes at Google can have wide-reaching effects. Here’s the latest roundup of news by, for and about Google.
Limiting the API of Google Maps
The Google Maps API is used all over the web. As the programming interface that integrates Google Maps with the rest of the web, the Maps API is very heavily utilized. As of today, however, any Maps API that gets more than 25,000 requests per day will immediately stop working. Developers can pay for additional API usage, and while Google has not listed a specific price, rumors are that the price is between $2 and $6 per 1,000 API pageviews. Travel and destination-based websites are expected to be especially hard-hit.
The Platapus may be back
In early 2008, Google killed off a project that had been referred to as both GDrive and Platapus. In 2006, Google acquired online word processing service Writerly, and appeared to roll it into Google Docs. There have been indications, however, that the project may have been resurrected. A test page for GDrive has started appearing in some search results, test code for Chrome browser updates contains links to drive.google.com. Public presentations for Google have included references to GDrive. The service will likely be an upgrade to the Google Docs service, most likely with a desktop element of some kind.
Google pushing Zagat above Yelp
Google’s relationship with Yelp has, especially for the last few years, been a difficult one. Google tried to puchase Yelp, and not only were the company’s efforts rebuffed, Yelp sued Google for scraping Yelp reviews for Place pages. Now, Google is using its own Adwords service to place Zagat results above Yelp for the search term “Yelp.” Some are crying foul, saying that Google is misusing its power as the major traffic source for Yelp to redirect traffic to Zagat, which Google owns.