Geocoding Strategies - Google Maps API

The attached article Show archive.org snapshot outlines considerations when choosing client-side vs. server-side implementations of the Google Geocoding APIs (geocoder, directions, not maps drawing). The main points are:

• On the server side you only get a fixed daily request quota
• On the client side the quota is per-client, so basically unlimited
• When implementing APIs on the server-side, be aware that quota is measured by IP. When hosting in the cloud you don't always know which other services might share your IP. Another application by another developer might use the same IP, so you can both use up the entire quota.

Note that the Google Maps Javascript API (the one that draws maps on the screen) has a different quota policy. Here you can use 25,000 requests per site and day Show archive.org snapshot (not per client).