"Welcome to the release of version 3 of the Google Maps API. This JavaScript API will look similar to the existing version 2 of the Google Maps API. However, much has changed under the hood: Version 3 (called V3 within this document) has been designed to load fast, especially on mobile browsers such as Android-based devices and the iPhone™. The initial launch has a smaller feature set than that available in the V2 API. We will migrate additional features from V2 while working to keep the size of the JavaScript code small and maintain our optimized loading speeds." Launched at Google I/O. Congrats to Ben Appleton and the rest of the Maps API team on the launch! - Evan Parker

Here's the blog post: http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2009.... - Evan Parker