When Damon and I launched TheTrueSize back in 2013, we had no idea the wild ride we were about to embark on. We were exploring the maps API for another project when we saw The True Size of Africa by Kai Krause. Inspired, we whipped up a prototype in just a few hours that proved to us we were on to something we thought was interesting. Over the next few months we honed that prototype into something we were proud of and released it to the world. And for two years, the world really didn’t seem to care.
We had almost no visitors until 2015, when Damon posted it to a map enthusiast group on Facebook. Suddenly we shot to the front page of Reddit, saw 1 million visitors in a single day, and were feilding interview requests by reporters from the Washington Post and numerous other publications. Over the past three and a half years, we have watched in awe as our work has been written about in every corner of the world, in more languages than we can count.
Our greatest joy, however, has been the countless educators who have reached out to tell us how they were using the site in their classroom; Challenging the preconceived notions and assumptions of their students. That today’s decision will remove a resource they found helpful is our greatest regret.
Unfortunately, Google Maps has recently introduced a new billing structure that makes it impossible for us to sustain this site any longer. Even before the change, the revenue from our advertising was barely covering our hosting costs. With the new policy, we are looking at losing thousands of dollars annually.
We have reached out to the Google Maps team to see if there’s anything that can be done, but we aren’t hopeful. If you’re an educator who has found this tool useful, it might be worth reaching out @GMapsPlatform on Twitter (please, keep it civil). Who knows, maybe there is an exception to be made.
On behalf of Damon, and myself: Thank You, Internet. It’s been awesome.
-- James