Reverse Geocoding

rolandgifford · October 29, 2022, 04:40:11 AM

I'm happy with reverse geo-coding as a principle but I have two questions.

I currently use Google and have an API Key. This is free as long as I stick within limits and have a hard limit set which restricts me to 1000 requests per day. Google have the ability to set a monthly limit but that is a soft limit and simply warns if you exceed it (but that may be different these days). I can handle this easily by selecting up to that limit number of files then reverse geo-coding the selected files.

If I select a file which is a version set of four, am I selecting one file or four? I assume one as the result will be cascaded to the other three, just checking.

I have read in a different forum conversation that IMatch performs two requests per file when reverse geo-coding. Is that still the case limiting me to 500 files per day?

Mario · October 29, 2022, 09:06:48 AM

The reverse geocoding shows the number of selected files. If you only select one master, it should show 1.
IMatch must make two requests because Google delivers not all the data required to fill in lat/lon/alt with one API call.

If you prefer to use Google and you don't want to spend money, I suggest you restrict yourself to reverse geocode less than 500 files per month to stay on the safe side. Same if you use the Map Panel with Google Maps. There is a similar limit of free usage per month.

rolandgifford · October 29, 2022, 11:10:50 AM

Quote from: Mario on October 29, 2022, 09:06:48 AMThe reverse geocoding shows the number of selected files. If you only select one master, it should show 1.
IMatch must make two requests because Google delivers not all the data required to fill in lat/lon/alt with one API call.

Thanks

Quote from: Mario on October 29, 2022, 09:06:48 AMIf you prefer to use Google and you don't want to spend money, I suggest you restrict yourself to reverse geocode less than 500 files per month to stay on the safe side. Same if you use the Map Panel with Google Maps. There is a similar limit of free usage per month.

I prefer to use whichever service gives me the most accurate results without paying a lot ;-) The Google free limit was (the last time I checked) around 30,000 per month so setting a hard limit of 1,000 per day keeps me within that. Most of my photos are rural/remote so reverse geocoding doesn't always give the results I would like.

Based on comments I have read in this forum I believe that Google is the best choice from the accuracy point of view. I have found myself on the wrong side of their charging limit once as I had assumed the monthly limit which can be entered was a limit rather than a warning and was presented with a large bill, which Google thankfully waived as a genuine mistake. I have been careful ever since, hence my questions.

Mario · October 29, 2022, 11:51:54 AM

Your can monitor your API usage via the Google Dashboard, but there might be a delay between usage and billing.

Google does not allow for "disable API when limit is exceeded", as far as I know.
They allow you to configure limits and receive a notification via email when the limit is exceeded. This should work for most non-commercial users, unless you reverse geocode large amounts of files daily.

As far as I know, Google switched billing to bill every request (no free requests anymore) but give each customer a $200 credit: https://mapsplatform.google.com/pricing/

rolandgifford · October 29, 2022, 12:26:21 PM

Quote from: Mario on October 29, 2022, 11:51:54 AMGoogle does not allow for "disable API when limit is exceeded", as far as I know.
They allow you to configure limits and receive a notification via email when the limit is exceeded. This should work for most non-commercial users, unless you reverse geocode large amounts of files daily.

As far as I know, Google switched billing to bill every request (no free requests anymore) but give each customer a $200 credit: https://mapsplatform.google.com/pricing/

You can set a quota for requests per day which used to be a hard limit, returning an error if there were more than that number of requests per day. They may have changed that, I have been careful since exceeding the monthly free allowance. The notification by email used to be based on the monthly quota, the email arriving some time after the limit has been considerably exceeded in my experience.

I think the pricing has always been presented as a monthly dollar amount credit. Whether everything is chargeable and there is a credit or the first x,000 are free both feel the same. Just marketing in my view.

If there were some other free service with data as good where I don't need to be careful, I would switch to it. Possibly an annual donation, as you suggest, as I do for a number of free internet services I use.

Mario · October 29, 2022, 12:54:59 PM

Quote from: rolandgifford on October 29, 2022, 12:26:21 PMIf there were some other free service with data as good where I don't need to be careful, I would switch to it. Possibly an annual donation, as you suggest, as I do for a number of free internet services I use.

Collecting and maintaining the data costs money, also the servers which run the API's. It's fair that they charge for it.

The only "free" service I know is GeoNames.org, which is run by volunteers and may or may have not the same quality as Google Maps or Bing Maps. I would not use GeoNames.org to code more than 100 files or so per month. I don't want to abuse them.