dennisgorelik | Entries tagged with geocoding

Our geocoding loop detector -- found Google Maps bug.

Google Maps search for "quweisna,menofia governorate,egypt"
points to "quwaysna,menofia governorate,egypt".

Searching for "quwaysna,menofia governorate,egypt" points back to "quweisna,menofia governorate,egypt".

Quwaysna is about 1 mile away from Queisna:

Crossposts: https://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/180356.html

We use 2 geocoding providers: Mapbox (primary) and Google Maps (as a backup when Mapbox produces weird results).

Using 2 geocoding providers, occasionally, causes weird data collisions.
For example:
Mapbox API geocodes "north beach, MD,20714" as "west beach, MD,20714", but Google Maps API geocodes "west beach, MD,20714" as "north beach, MD,20714".
That, effectively, forms geocoding loop:
~~~~~~~
west beach, MD,20714
north beach, MD,20714
west beach, MD,20714
north beach, MD,20714
west beach, MD,20714
...
~~~~~~~

This geocoding loop may cause infinite redirect between job list web pages:
-----
"West beach" jobs page redirects to "North beach" jobs page.
"North beach" jobs page redirects to "West beach" jobs page.
...
-----

Yesterday we launched Geocoding loop detection code, and found over 50 geocoding loops in our 901,016 records GeocodedLocation table.

Some other geocoding loops examples:
=======
san francisco,ca,94105 <-> south beach,ca,94105
northeast washington,dc,20018 <-> washington,dc,20018
miami,fl,33132 <-> downtown,fl,33132
far rockaway,ny,11691 <-> queens,ny,11691

kankan,guinea <-> kankan region,guinea
amhara,ethiopia <-> amhara region,ethiopia
jigawa,nigeria <-> jigawa state,nigeria
manzini district,swaziland <-> manzini,swaziland
=======

Crossposts: https://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/179751.html

Today "Google Maps Platform <google-maps-platform-noreply@google.com>
emailed me (and other users) how they "simplified product structure", which means that they increase prices 10x+.

So, instead of $10/month - $50/month we pay now -- we will have to pay somewhere between $200/month and $3000/month (depending on how much we downsize our Google Maps API usage).

Google Geocoding API prices change from "$0.50 per 1000 requests" to "$5 per 1000 requests".

The pricing time bomb is scheduled to explode on 2018 June 11.

On our to-do list:
1) Eliminate Google Maps from postjobfree.com pages (/job and /resume pages).
2) Find a replacement for Google Geocoding API.

The most promising Geocoding API alternatives so far:
1) https://geocod.io/pricing/
2) https://geocoder.opencagedata.com/pricing

Other alternatives

Discussion on Hacker News

Google Maps API team wants to get paid more (2016)

Today we are announcing important changes, including our new name - Google Maps Platform, a simplified product structure, pay as you go pricing for all, and more. Please take a few minutes to review the announcement to familiarize yourself with the upcoming changes.

We would like to highlight a few updates that may impact your implementation. Beginning June 11th, we are launching our new pricing plan and providing all users access to support. We’ll continue to offer a free tier — all developers will receive $200 of free monthly usage of our core products.

How does this affect your current account(s)?

Billing Account: 00B0C3-2BDF32-******

Based on your usage over the last 3 months and our new pricing plan, you may be eligible for a volume discount. Please fill out this form to provide additional information about your account, and a Google representative will contact you within the next two weeks.

We want to help you with the transition to the new pricing plan. To do that, we're offering 2 months of credits which we will apply automatically to your billing account.

We want to support you along the way. Please read our Guide for Existing Users to understand how these changes may impact your account and what steps you need to take.

Thank you for using Google Maps Platform.

Crossposts: https://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/154491.html

Google Cloud Platform performs with pathetic 99.8% uptime - worse than the cheapest hosting providers.
Last month we got 326 crashes out of 172,922 API requests.

Crossposts: http://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/141323.html

Dennis Gorelik

Entries tagged with geocoding

"Quwaysna <-> Queisna" geocoding loop in Google Maps

Geocoding loop

Google Maps API increased prices 10x

Google Maps Geocoding API - 0.2% down

Profile

March 2026

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags