Not to be outdone by
Microsoft's announcement related to the release of the SDK for Maps developers,
Google late Monday released the ability to see maps and get directions from within Gmail and Google Buzz.
Google Software Engineer Mark Knichel tells us you need only to enable the Google Maps previews in mail from the
Gmail Labs tab under Settings. A preview will appear containing an interactive Google Map of that location any time you receive an address or a Google Maps link in an email.