Good on ya mum Nearmap's the one..., page-76

A lot of people were concerned about the Google API billing increase as of this month. I have done some research on the matter and can conclude the impact to Nearmap from a cost perspective is negligible.

Upon logging into Nearmap and doing some research my findings suggest:

1. Nearmap has an exclusive agreement with Google so the price rises don't affect them as stated here. Upon looking into the API calls Nearmap makes on their mapbrowser I can see it specifically mentions an agreement with "Nearmap PTY LTD". (XXXX put in for privacy)

Code:

http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js/StatsService.RecordStats?XXXX%7Cclient%3Agme-nearmapptyltd1&2sinteraction&6m2&1span&2v1&callback=_xdc_._XXXX&token=XXXX

2. Nearmap only makes a Google Maps API request when:
i. A user loads up the mapbrowser the first time counted as 1 map load.
ii. A user switches to streetview in which case the call (retrieving info from Google's API) uses 1 Streetview credit presumably.
iii. A user switches to the terrain view
iv. A user enters a map search which calls Google's Geocode service.
v. A user enables map properties to get street overlays

Nearmap doesn't seem to use Google's full address matching technology. (No suggestions upon user entry, only partial geocoding requests on submission) In some ways I wish they did as their search tends to only recognise addresses and only popular landmarks. (eg. Flinders Street Station) Rather than some more obscure searches.

In the case that Nearmap was even charged the full $11.20 per 1000 Streetview load (doesn't count when a user pans/zooms after instantiating) and $5.60 per 1000 map calls, (For i and iii) it doesn't seem like it would cost the a lot. They would use Google's Geocode API a lot given it is called upon every search entry which if they weren't on an exclusive billing would be $4 per 1000 searches.

As I mentioned before if the costs were expensive it wouldn't be too hard for Nearmap to switch to Here.com or another mapping provider as most of the value in their maps is proprietary that they own although Streetview is a great feature that is worthwhile.