How to change info Window style in Google Maps API?

Will the changes to the Google Maps API terms of service kill any large scale project?

• Last friday Google has announced changes to their maps API TOS: http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2011/04/updates-to-google-maps-apigoogle-earth.html If I understand them correctly they bring along two major threats to many maps mashups: - A new daily limit of 25k "maps" - An obligation to "display any advertising delivered in the maps imagery" What exactly does that mean? Are "daily maps" initial map requests? (Or tiles? Or all Ajax map requests?) What is "advertising in the maps imagery"? Adsense for maps? Or logos rendered into the tiles? Most importantly: Will projects that generate more than 25k daily map views have to pay or cease to use Google? PS. Three days after the announcement nobody seems to be discussing these issues, strange.

• Answer:

  While the numbers with »transaction limits« are well defined, the term »maps« is not - at least not in or near the context given here http://code.google.com/intl/en-EN/apis/maps/faq.html#usagelimits - There are currently no limits on the number of web based JavaScript or Flash maps a site can generate. However the Google Maps API Web Services and Google Static Maps API do have daily limits that are specified in their documentation. There is a section on »transactions» at http://code.google.com/intl/en-EN/apis/maps/faq.html#tos_transaction stating ... A single transaction occurs when: the Maps JavaScript API (v2 or v3) is loaded by a web page or application; a SWF that loads the Maps API for Flash is loaded by a web page or application; or a single request is made for a map image from the Static Maps API. Another passage hints towards an interpretation here http://code.google.com/intl/de-DE/apis/maps/documentation/javascript/forum.html?place=topic%2Fgoogle-maps-js-api-v3%2FD0qAkNOB_TA : transaction limits on the number of maps that may be generated per day by commercial Maps API web sites or applications. I'd guess this is meant to be »map delivered to end user«, disregarding the number of tiles that area is made of. However, that'll be ill-defined. On March 17 2010, Matthew Leske (»Product Manager at Google Maps Australia« at that time) posted an article http://google-au.blogspot.com/2010/03/turn-left-at-chemist-and-ill-meet-you.html that well could be the end of the map as we know it. Companies can pay to place their logo on Google Maps. Only the announcement didn't become too specific on that: "These easily recognisable logos more closely depict online what the offline world looks like, so next time you're trying to find your way on the map you can navigate more easily using these icons as landmarks." While this announcement was the first step to a "billboardization" of Google Maps, it wasn't taken too serious within the mapping industry (if such a thing exists) but fueled a nice artistical plot. While the right screenshot shows small, centered logotypes on Google Maps, the right picture is a still from the movie Logorama, meanwhile moved to a pay version on Apples appstore: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewMovie?id=359000248&s=143443, a 17-minute animated film made by the French collective H5 [http://h5.fr/%5D. Logorama depicts events in a stylized Los Angeles, and is told entirely through the use of more than 2,500 contemporary and historical logos and mascots. The film won the Prix Kodak at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film [http://oscar.go.com/nominations/nominees/logorama/3367%5D at the 82nd Academy Awards.