>"But isn't that tosh ; the hundreds of users all have DIFFERENT driving >directions ?"
Yes. Kind of. See, we have user's give us a zipcode as location so - multiple users per location. We use that and a mile radius to pick the events to notify them about. So really, we're doing lookups once for multiple users. Sorry I didn't make that clear earlier ! >"Google's servers load share on a global scale, I wouldn't worry about >'primetime'. They'll make a better job of handling staggered requests >from many different end-users browsers than a batch job from your >server" VERY true. But as stated above I could still reduce the number of times the lookup is done, even if Google can handle the load. >"... staggered requests from many different end-users browsers" Additionally, driving direction would not be fetched from the end- users browser since I'm using the "web service" API and not the Javascript API to fetch the driving instructions. The Javascript API is only used to display the map and event location markers. Since I'm using the "web services" API, the performance I was talking about is the time for each lookup from my server to google and then back to my users browser multiplied by hundreds of users, in realtime. ______________ | | |---------------|--------| | MAP | dd | <--- The driving directions to the event are cached and displayed next to the map |---------------|--- ----| |_____________| While I believe I understand the senario you're talking about where the end users browser is connected to Google thru the Javascript API and fetches the driving directions this is still wasteful. Example: 900 users in the same zipcode location browsing 50-200 hundred events in their area is 45,000 - 180,000 lookups ( multiple users browsers to google servers via javascript ) But in my senario the driving directions are fetched once per event no matter how many users. Individuals that want to refine the driving instructions from the event to a different location (like their house) would be sent to Google's map interface off our site. >"Seems to me there will be less load on Google's servers if only the >directions actually wanted by users are looked up, rather than the >directions for every one of a customer base for every event." True. But as stated above, our websites Google map would display the same information, fetched once, to multiple users. >"Bear in mind there is a speed limit on how fast you can get directions >and a daily limit on quantity from a single requester. If you are >talking many hundreds of users for several events it may take days to >work through the requests. " Hence the reason for doing the lookups once for multiple users. I was afraid that if hundreds of users came the site from their notification email and we then fetched for each user the driving instructions for multiple events we'd use up our daily limit very quickly. As mentioned above, individuals that want to refine the driving instructions from the event to a different location (like their house) would be send to Google's map interface off our site and therefore would not count towards our daily transaction limit. >"Why don't you just calculate a straight line distance, add 10%, and label it >as an estimate?" It seems simple to think in those terms. But from our understanding it still seems our approach is within the TOS and that is why I'm seeking clarification. -- 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.
