Our Store Locator Plus® 5.0 WordPress plugin is out today with some notable changes.
What Store Locator Plus 5 does have is an improved map rendering process that reduces geocoding requests. Since Google switched over to a 100% pay-as-you-go system for EVERYONE , no “free map views or geocoding” even for long-time users, we decided to focus on helping users reduce their monthly Google fees. WPSLP 5 is the first release to work towards that goal.
Several changes have made it into the October 2018 release of My Store Locator Plus®. The updates include features users of the mapping and directory service have been asking for since the start of the summer.
Users that generate embed codes for their Weebly, Wix, Squarespace or other sites will notice a small change to the code — we now serve up a minified JavasScript snippet. The compressed code will load faster and take up less memory on your site. Mobile users visiting your site will like that.
Users that have already embedded the map may want to grab the new embed code by logging into MySLP and copying the code from Generate Embed.
How much did the Google Maps API prices increase? The true cost is hidden for many users of the ubiquitous Google Maps API as Google is weaning you onto a potential 9,000% price increase by giving everyone a $200 per-month credit towards API billing through September 2018. For many API users the true sticker shock will come when that $200 credit expires.
Our fully managed locator service has already seen the impact. When the $200 credit expires our expenses will increase 9,570%
Up until July 2018 most users were able to get by with no official Google API key at all. Those that started a site in the past year needed an API key but likely fell under the “free usage limits” and never saw a bill; even if they enabled the older “Pay-As-You-Go” system under Google.
