I’ve seen several posts like this one that reiterate that ESRI has announced that:

‘As of the end of January, ArcGIS Online basemaps published and hosted by Esri are now freely available to all users regardless of commercial, noncommercial, internal, or external use. This means that you no longer have to pay a subscription fee for including ArcGIS Online basemaps in your commercial-use web applications. Basemaps included in this new business model are World Imagery Map, World Street Map, World Topographic Map, USA Topographic Maps, and DeLorme World Basemap. The only restriction is a high-volume transaction limit of 50,000,000 transactions in a 12-month period, which is equivalent to 400,000,000 tile requests per year, or over 1,000,000 per day – a volume that most likely very few users will reach. ‘Read the ArcGIS Online blog to get the latest news and updates.’'

I was unable to find a copy of the announcement on the ArcGIS Online blog or on ESRI’s news section although I did receive an email that Charles Convis, ESRI Conservation Program Coordinator, sent to the Society for Conservation GIS mailing list with the same information so I’m guessing it is true. Perhaps ESRI pulled the post hoping to release the information with more of a splash?

Regardless, I think that this only helps make quick, affordable, professional web application more possible.

While skimming the ArcGIS Online Blog, I found a post about embedding a hosted map into your blog. Like this one of Arlington, Texas, where Super Bowl XLV was played a couple weeks ago. And, in case you missed it, the now 13-Time World Champions, Green Bay Packers, beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25, winning the team’s fourth Super Bowl. ESRI also published this neat application that spatially shows which team football fans were rooting for.

Unfortunately, the free WordPress blogging software I am using allows only limited set of embedded frames–arcgis online maps not being one of them. There are wordpress add-ins to allow this but my host, WordPress.com, does not include it so you’ll just see a link. Rather disappointing.

View Arlington Map