Because your options are usually:<p>1. Try to do it yourself or find another service, which will usually result in much higher cost and a worse implementation, or
2. Use the Google API, with the cost of lock-in.<p>I think the best solution is to always wrap the Google API with a generic facade, so if you do have to replace the API with something down the line it is at least possible. There are some APIs out there that already do this (e.g. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;mapstraction.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;mapstraction.com&#x2F;</a> )