Google. This page can't load Google Maps correctly. Do you own this website? For development purposes only.

Recently my sites started to show the message: Google. This page can't load Google Maps correctly. Do you own this website? For development purposes only.

Now you may be wondering why this occurs and if you're the site owner, what you can do about it.

The reason this message occurs and the map goes grey is because Google charges for map usage over a certain amount. I believe this is around 28,000 views a month. This month because of the lockdown in Victoria my 5km radius map became quite popular and thus all my map sites together exceeded the limit.

Now normally this would be great. Lots of visitors means lots of money. Not so. This site doesn't make me money. I can't put Google ads on the site and even if I did, the site is unlikely to make enough money to cover the $200 people estimate the 28,000 views would cost. I use the rough figure that Google ads earn about $5 per 1,000 views so 28,000 views would earn $140 but cost $200. That's not viable. Even worse, if I don't place a limit on the charges per month I could end up with a very hefty bill. The map does help me promote my other sites a little but not enough to warrant paying Google the money. I'm happy to pay Google as long as I'm ahead but in this case I wouldn't be. The map really just helps people to work out where their 5km radius is when we go into lockdown because of COVID19.

So if paying Google in this case isn't the answer, what could I do?

First I could simply close the site. It's not making money but it has some value to me so that's not my preferred option.

I decided to review the alternate mapping options. The obvious first choice was OpenStreetMaps but after reviewing OpenStreetMaps I felt I could easily reproduce what I was doing with Google Maps. Far too much work. There's also TomTom maps but the limit before you get charged is too low. Luckily In the end I decided to use Here Maps. 

Here Maps if I recall correctly spun off from Nokia and I was able to ascertain fairly quickly Here Maps looked like it could do what I wanted. Most importantly Here Maps allows people to have 250,000 view per month before charging and they don't require a credit card up front. That's about 10 time more traffic than Google Maps so plenty of scope for growth for my sites. Keep in mind I don't have to migrate all sites, just any site that is getting a lot of traffic as was the case this time.

Migrating is a bit of a pain. You really have to learn the new approach. This took a few hours each day over three days and I have to say I'm please with the result. Here Maps feels a little slower than Google Maps but the slight delay isn't a major issue. Initially the Here Maps look more sparse but now that I'm used to the map being sparse it actually feels cleaner. In addition I felt I was able to improve my presentation because I was force to revisit the code. For example I made the transparency greater in the circles which to me improved the result. One disadvantage is I did like that in Windows and on Android phones you could have the map to display full screen. Whilst I felt that was an advantage the disadvantage is this didn't work on iPhones and iPhone uses are far more active on the internet than Android users, so not a big loss. Moving the Here Maps around only requires a single finger on mobile devices and that's more convenient for people. So you win some and you lose some. 

So in summary, Here Maps has allowed me to keep providing my 5km radius map to the general public for free, whereas if I didn't have the option of Here Maps, I most likely would have had to close the site down. I have no angst towards to Google for charging for their maps as they too are in business to make money and am thankful for all the services they provide.

If you're a developer and your Google map faces the same situation of being marked "for development purposes only", at least you know you have a potential option in Here Maps.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.5kmRadius.com.au