Google Maps Free Alternatives « Fubra. We love Google products much like why we love Apple here at Fubra (apart from those who don’t believe in the great Steve Jobs), they work and work well. But recently they made a change to their Maps API that caused us to rethink our mapping strategy drastically. Since October, Google introduce a clause in their usage terms that states that if you do go over 25000 user sessions a day then they can start charging you a fee for use. Not such a big deal some may say and Google did note in their developer blog… Based on current usage, only the top 0.35% of sites will be affected by these limits, meaning that the Google Maps API will remain free for the vast majority of sites.— Google Developer Blog On the usage statics from a post last year on their blog that means 1225 sites will be affected (probably more). One of our sites, World Airport Codes, is one of those sites. So our search for a replacement started! Javascript Map API Map Tile Service Putting it Together To something like this: MapQuest.
Foursquare Dumps Google & Goes Open-Source for Maps. Foursquare just made what it called "a little announcement", but it's really not little at all. It's switching away from the Google Maps API to OpenStreetMap. For the map images, it hired MapBox, a start-up that makes pretty maps out of OpenStreetMap data. Starting with foursquare.com, foursquare's maps now use MapBox Streets. Foursquare cites Google's decision to start charging for access to the Google Maps API in October as the reason it started looking for alternatives. Lots of businesses built on top of Google Maps have been switching providers lately. Google's decision to charge for API access could not have been made lightly, especially considering the importance of Foursquare.
It's also hard to ignore Google's efforts to compete with foursquare directly. So now Foursquare and Google are direct competitors. Foursquare's iPhone and Android apps won't be affected, because they use the mapping components integrated with those operating systems, both of which use Google Maps. Sebastian Delmont - Google+ - Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish TL;DR: We…