Home
Help Center

Map Marker Search Feature Changes FAQ

Why change the search experience and remove the Google Places Search?

Unfortunately, starting July 29th 2019, the Google Places Search API is no longer free to use for third party developers. Based on my usage (aka my users' usage), I would have had to pay about 20 thousand dollars per month to Google, which I could not afford. Since I wanted to keep the search feature free for all my users, that was the best way I could think of: manual configuration.

Can I still search with Google?

On Android, you can still share a place from the Google Maps app to open it in Map Marker. For other platforms, you can get the Google search back if you're willing to follow the configuration steps for a Google API key, but those steps are pretty complicated. Alternatively, "HERE" places search is pretty easy to configure and gives results of good quality when searching for street addresses. See the "Configuring third party search sources" section of the help page for more details.

Can I use an older version of Map Marker?

You can still use older versions of Map Marker, but starting July 29th 2019, the old search service used by old app versions will be shut down which will result in the search breaking. That's why I updated the app one week before the deadline, so that most users have the time to update naturally.

I need the in-app Google Search, the free configuration option is too complicated, and I don't mind paying, is there an option for me?

Short answer: no, but that could change... I looked at the pricing of the new Google Search and at the time of writing this help page, it costs about 2 cents per search, which means that you'll be paying 1$ every 50 searches. Building a system to accurately bill users based on their usage would be pretty complicated, and my personal instinct as a user is that I would never pay to search things I can search in Google Maps for free anyway... If I'm wrong on that point, please contact me and let me know, if enough users ask for this, I would definitely consider building that system.