Talk about your basic, fabulous application. Not surprisingly, it's fast, too. Just point your browser to http://maps.google.com and give it a spin.
As Omar points out, there are some great opportunities with using your favorite shortcut system, too. For example, if you are using the MSN Desktop Search, you can enter:
@map,http://maps.google.com/maps?q=$w
into the Deskbar to quickly access maps. If you prefer to use SlickRun (and I tend to), create a MagicWord:
magicword=map
filename=iexplore.exe
parameters=http://maps.google.com/maps?q=$W$
It's hard to keep up with all of the cool Google tools, eh?