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I think the Maps API is different than the Geocode in that the Maps API requires you to grab a key here:

http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html

So to avoid it in that sense you'd have to force every one of your clients to go grab an API key and input it.

Look at the note at the top of the page you linked, Version 3 of the Maps API doesn't require a key.

Not only does v3 not require an API key, as of Sept 28 (a couple days before the rate limiting went into effect) sending a v2 API key to v3 will cause the request to fail:

http://groups.google.com/group/google-maps-js-api-v3-notify/...

Sounds like they're laying the ground work for v3 to use API keys again.

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