i am creating a website for a local business and one thing they want me to add is a map and directions.
what is the latest and greatest features out there that i can include to make this slick / interactive, etc in terms of the above embedded in my own site (whether it be google maps, yahoo maps, map quest, etc)
One suggestion I have is to have a local copy of the map of the business. That way, you aren't totally reliant on Google Maps etc. in case it goes down.
Not very likely to happen I know, but sometimes it does happen.
Google Maps v3 API is awesome but it's only in Google Labs at this point... I'm not sure it will work for you. I've worked with the big 3 (Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft VE) and my preference is towards Google maps. The API generally makes more sense to me and the geocoder has been more accurate that the others.