Google Maps API Returning Inaccurate Results

Google does not openly advertise the fact that they have different location data for different users. However there is good anecdotal evidence an hearsay that Google Maps API returning inaccurate results may be by design.

The evidence is most prevalent in the geocoding of locations. The latitude and longitude Google assigns to different addresses is not “set in stone”. It is an interesting anomaly given the fact that places on earth should not move with regard to their latitude & longitude outside of plate tectonics.

The team at Store Locator Plus® has long held a theory that Google intentionally subverts accurate location data; quite likely to gain competitive advantage for their own products and services.

Fewer Geocode Requests With Store Locator Plus® 5

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.

Location Map and Directory Listing Improvements

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.

Faster map loads

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.