On 26 August 2010 04:22, Xave <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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're responsible for your use of the API, and for the consequences, so if you reckon it's ok, there's nothing stopping you implementing it. I don't think it's within the Terms as you must display the results on a map (not merely give users the opportunity to view a map), and you can't do that with an email. You could give the entire route details in the email rather than draw a map, but then the next drawback comes into play -- Using zipcodes for directions isn't exactly helpful anyway. Almost exactly 100% of your users will not live at the centroid of their respective zipcode area, so you will always be returning directions which start from the wrong place. I think you need to start from scratch and work out what will be most useful to your *users*, not what will be "good for Google". Google have written their Terms they way they have for a reason. And they have scaled systems which can cope with hundreds of simultaneous requests. Your users are likely to read their emails and request directions at different times, anyway -- and each of their own IP addresses has its own quota. And: driving directions do change. Caching entire routes in perpetuity is not a good idea. (And the Terms do use "temporarily", which I would interpret as not really longer than a day) -- 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.
