Been playing around with the new version myself and must say it’s a great step forward.
Here’s the official Google Promo Video:
The new Google Maps draws you a tailored map for every search and click you make. So whatever you’re trying to find or wherever you’re trying to go, you’ll always have a map highlighting the things that matter most.
As a developer you can already trigger your maps into using the visual refresh by setting the global google.maps.visualRefres property to true (note: you must include v3.exp!). Most likely Google Maps v4 will unleash the full power of the New Google Maps to us, developers.
Related: Google I/O talk Design principles for maps →