News

Fewer Geocode Requests With Store Locator Plus® 5

Our Store Locator Plus® 5.0 WordPress plugin is out today with some notable changes.   

What Store Locator Plus 5 does have is an improved map rendering process that reduces geocoding requests.    Since Google switched over to a 100% pay-as-you-go system for EVERYONE , no “free map views or geocoding” even for long-time users, we decided to focus on helping users reduce their monthly Google fees.     WPSLP 5 is the first release to work towards that goal.

Store Locator Geocoding Privacy

The late November 2018 updates to My Store Locator Plus® add a new level of data privacy for your site visitors.     Until now whenever a user typed in an address on your locator that search was sent directly from the user’s browser to Google.  This is how the vast-majority of locator software applications work.

Until now.

In an effort to provide a better user experience AND protect user privacy, all address lookup requests (aka geocoding requests) are now directed through the My Store Locator Plus® dual-layer proxy server.    Unlike Google, and many other online services, we do not track or retain identifiable data that associates this lookup with a user or their IP address.

Address Lookup
Address lookup used to send your address data as well as browser info and IP address to Google directly. Not with MySLP.

By doing nothing more than employing the MySLP embed code on your site to provide locator or directory services for your customers you are giving them an extra level of privacy and security.    Google can no longer directly associate an address they type into the search with their web browser.

Privacy.  That is something we think everyone can use more of these days.

MySLP Sign Up

Tired of dealing with Google?

Location Directions for Store Locator

The list of locations has a link for directions from your user’s location to each of the stores shown on the map.    At some point in the recent past this feature stopped working.    Our November update to My Store Locator Plus® addresses this issue, restoring proper direction links to your locations.    Self-managed WordPress plugin users will need to upgrade to the Store Locator Plus plugin version 4.9.22 for this patch.

Map Directions
Map Directions