I was searching google too long, but didn't find anything except from "Mike Feltman, AJAX" and some coverage in UT Mag.

Anyway, here is thread here that is probably what Peter was looking for
Re: Mapit service Thread #1198680 Message #1198710

>>Thanks,
>>but that's not either.
>>I seem to remember it was a URL with parameters (city, state zip etc..)
>>and it brought up the map
>
>I just typed the name of the grocery from which I just returned, and the name of the city... and googled that. The first few links had the "get directions" smaller links below them. I copied one and tried to remove all that's not really necessary... and it came down to
>
>http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&ll=36.845088,-76.28864
>
>(I've changed the decimals at random, so you'll get Norfolk now).
>
>Other useful elements would be
>
>

&near=Virginia+Beach,+VA
>&daddr=33333+Virginia+Beach+Blvd,+Virginia+Beach,+VA+23452,+USA
>

>
>It seems it would manage with as much info as you can supply.