Earlier this month (5/14/08 @ 05:40 PST) Google announced the Google Maps API for Flash. One of the changes that you notice right off is the difference and smoothness in animation. Its great to finally have the ability to integrate this mapping application into a flash experience and have access to the geo API natively.

Resources
Announcement
http://googlemapsapi.blogspot.com/2008/05/introducing-google-maps-api-for-flash.html
Documentation [...]