>>Why would no google maps be so limiting? Bing maps are available and easy to use. IMO, better than Google...
You raised the issue of Google being hit with patent lawsuits: fwiw, both Google and MS are now being sued over their mapping technologies.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
