The new site includes interactive demos and showcases highlighting third-party sites and applications. Now that it costs money to access the Google Maps API, Google wants to give developers a little more motivation to get over that hurdle. Some will. Others are fleeing to open-source alternatives, and that’s a great thing for the ecosystem.

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“With the continuing evolution of the Google Maps API,” product marketing manager and Maps developer Carlos Cuesta writes, “it became clear that we needed more than just code documentation to convey what’s possible with the Google Maps API.”

Lately, that “continuing evolution” has involved charging for API access, which was mostly free for years. Now Google has to inspire a new class of Maps apps whose businesses aren’t dependent on free data.

The New York Times got a quote from Google spokesman Sean Carlson, who says that the pricing “is intended to encourage responsible use” of Maps data and “secure its long-term future.”

Google already charged major users of the API, but now smaller developers will have to pay as well. It’s not prohibitively expensive for everybody, but for businesses built on the free API access, this has forced some major changes.

In one of the most newsworthy departures so far, Foursquare switched to OpenStreetMap, starting with its Web views. We also reported on the decision by AllTrails, a big social network for outdoors enthusiasts, to partner with National Geographic Maps and start moving away from Google, a tough decision it had to make in the process of launching.

The pricing was “significantly higher than I think anyone anticipated,” AllTrails founder/CEO Russell Cook told ReadWriteWeb.

“Deep down I think the developer community knew that at some point the Google APIs they were using would stop being free,” Cook said, “but I don’t think they ever expected the price gouging. My personal opinion is that Google has every right to charge for the services they are providing, but their recent actions have been very short sighted.”

It’s unfortunate that these businesses made plans that included cheap access to Google Maps data and later had to change them. But Google Maps has to be sustainable for the platform to thrive, and so do the businesses built on it. Hopefully, these new resources for developers will help.

“Overall it’s healthy for the ecosystem,” John Musser of Programmable Web told ReadWriteWeb when Google announced the change. “Services need to be sustainable with business models that work for both sides.”

Meanwhile, open-source mapping projects like OpenStreetMap are still dwarfed by the popularity of Google Maps. But major adopters like Foursquare are changing that. They’re also helping to sustain other supporting open-source projects like Leaflet. There are even studios building gorgeous graphics for OpenStreetMaps. As the need for location services grows and smartphones proliferate, the options for maps are multiplying.

Foursquare’s new maps built on OpenStreetMap

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Google offered some details about its plan to rate-limit the Google Maps API in a statement posted yesterday on the company’s Geo Developers blog. Developers who exceed the rate limits will have to either pay overage fees or buy a Maps API Premier subscription.

According to the blog post, Google will wait until next year before it actually starts enforcing the new rate limits. The delay is to give developers some time to adjust to the change and make appropriate preparations. The new rate limits will pose an unfortunate barrier to ubiquitous map mashups on the Internet, but the pricing model will help make the service more financially sustainable, ensuring that Google doesn’t have to shut down free access entirely.

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Sunday April 30, 2000 was not a good day for the World Discoverer, a cruise ship originally built in Germany, in 1974. At 4pm local time, she hit a rock that wasn’t in the Solomon Islands charts. More »

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Google Maps recently opened up their My Maps program which allows you to plot your own points of interests and way points along the way. What’s really great about this feature is that you have the power of Google Local and just by searching you can locate restaurants, attractions, parks and then add them to your custom map. Points of interest can be personalized with one of the built-in icons or you can upload your own.

My Maps is especially great when you are traveling with others because of the sharing options enable you to invite others to help edit your map together.

This weekend my fiance and I are traveling to Phoenix. She’s the foodie, I’m the sightseer. She was able to plot all of the places to eat and I mapped what we would be doing. Here’s our results:

Building the map is easy. Just visit maps.google.com and click on the My Maps feature. You need to set our map as public to enable the sharing features. Google has created a great video to demonstrate the step-by-step process of using the mapping tools.

What really sets this above the rest though are the mobile capabilities. With every map created Google automatically generates a KML file enabling you to embed the map into your website or load the points into Google Earth. But KML files can also be loaded into the iPhone. To load your map open the Google Maps application on your iPhone and in the search box, enter the URL to your KML file.

For testing purposes you can view our Phoenix map by entering “http://tinyurl.com/iphonemaptest” (without quotes) into your search box. I shortened the URL using TinyURL to make it easier to type. Google Maps brings up all of your points of interest and you can click on each pin and get directions to each of the locations from your current. And with the GPS you can see what’s around you to be sure you don’t miss a single thing.