*Premise: An ambiguous TOS helps no one.* The maps API TOS is at: https://developers.google.com/maps/terms?hl=en
It says in part: “10.2 Restrictions on the Types of Applications that You are Permitted to Build with the Maps API(s). Except as explicitly permitted in Section 8 (Licenses from Google to You) or the Maps APIs Documentation, you must not (nor may you permit anyone else to) do any of the following: ... (c) No Navigation, Autonomous Vehicle Control, or Enterprise Applications. You must not use the Service or Content with any products, systems, or applications for or in connection with any of the following: (i) real time navigation or route guidance, including but not limited to turn-by-turn route guidance that is synchronized to the position of a user's sensor-enabled device.” Now focus on the language prohibiting all type of *“real time navigation or route guidance”*. That language is extremely broad! Although I am reasonably experienced at parsing legal language, I have no clue whether Google intends that this very broad language completely prevents all us developers from using any HTML geolocation in our Google map API apps. After all, simply showing our users in real time where they are on our map (via HTML geolocation) will provide our users with information to help them do “real time navigation or route guidance”. Deciding how to get to point X begins with knowing where you are right now on the map. Assuming Google does not intend that its TOS ban all use of geolocation in API apps, the question begging to be answered with a revised and clarified TOS is: *What kinds of things are OK to do with geolocation in an API app?* For example, I have an app that is mostly used by people on foot or on a bike. Typically they are on a trail or out in the woods somewhere that there is cell coverage and thus their mobile browser can be online and they can use my app. Is it OK for my app to: * Update the user’s location on the map at a fixed interval of time? * Show the ‘straight line’ distance and bearing between the user’s current location and a waypoint the user selects? * Automatically update the distance and bearing to the next waypoint as the user moves? *Action item for Google:* If any of the above geolocation things are allowed or (yikes!) disallowed, please revise your TOS to say so in plain language. And for anyone that has not seen geolocation working in an API app, below is an example. If you open this Gmap4 link with a mobile device (and your GPS is on and you are outside) then the map should open centered at your location. When I open this link on my desktop (which of course lacks a GPS chip) the map is centered ~20 miles away. http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?t=h&mylocation=on Joseph Elfelt, the Gmap4 guy -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps JavaScript API v3" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-maps-js-api-v3. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
