In early May, Google announced an overhaul of its Maps platform for the many websites and apps that use Google Maps (along with location related services, such as auto-completing a partial address).
Press coverage was initially positive. But Google buried the lede: There would be a much tighter cap on the free ride that small websites had been using, while service prices would increase ten-fold or more nearly across the board. For example, a New Zealand transit agency is seeing its Google Maps bill increase, suddenly and unexpectedly, from $1000 to $30000 per month.
The price increases took effect, globally, on July 16.
Google Maps proliferated, in part, because they made it easy and inexpensive (free, for small developers) to adopt the service into their own web offerings. Now, websites small and large are scrambling to switch to other commercial or open-source alternatives, or paying through the nose if that's too difficult given their time and personnel constraints.