Hi developers- Generally: Please send an API key if using our API services. The fact that it happens to work without a key is an artifact.
The spirit of the Terms of Use is that you shouldn't be offering a professional batch geocoding service based on our geocoder, you shouldn't be using it for above 15,000 geocodes a day (the enforced limit per IP), and you should always be using it for the purpose of displaying the results on a Google map. I am not a lawyer, but my perspective is that using the geocoder to geocode your data within spreadsheets for use in a map is within the ToU. From a bandwidth point of view, my preference is for you to use the Spreadsheets Geocoder Gadget, since then you'll only be sending the requests to our servers once instead of each time the spreadsheets loads (or at whatever times Spreadsheets decides to evaluate the importData formulas). - pamela On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 10:04 AM, boomerbubba <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > > > > On Nov 2, 8:34 pm, "Barry Hunter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > No not really. Without a key the request is essentially using Google > > Maps - rather than Google Maps API. So a different set of Terms apply. > > > > Unfortunately as with many things, as has been said just because you > > *can* doesn't mean you *should* :( > > > Actually, I think when you use the HTTP Geocoder you are still using > the API. Google's documentation states: > > "You may also access the Maps API geocoder directly using server-side > scripting. This method is not recommended over using the client-side > geocoder; however, it is useful for debugging purposes or for cases > where a JavaScript GClientGeocoder object is not available. > > "To access the Maps API Geocoder, send a request to > http://maps.google.com/maps/geo? > with the following parameters in the URI:" > > So just because Google doesn't choose to enforce the key requirement > in practice -- as Google kindly does not enforce the key requirement > for the Javascript form of the API when the containing page is on the > user's file system instead of a web server for dev/debug purposes -- > that does not mean it is not the API anymore. It is still the API, > and the API terms apply. As Pamela mentioned above, that means the > HTTP geocoder method can only be used in a proper web site to display > Google maps. > > And API or no API, there is still a requirement that bulk geocoding is > not allowed. The only ambiguity is about how big it has to be in > practice before being disallowed. Pamela says above that 50 locations > are okay; elswhere Google says that "thousands" are not okay. > Personally, I wish Google would just publish a hard number so everyone > would know what the rules are. > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps API" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
