I don't know if this is new... but it is the first time I have seen it... But google Maps has a "Text View" that basically removes the map (shows a much smaller version)
Interesting... not horribly useful for me

I'm not seeing this..
Screenshot perhaps?

I saw this a couple of days ago too – it essentially switches to a 'local search' but with normal Google Search results rather than the map view.

Here's a screen shot (hope this works):

http://lh3.google.com/image/reto.meier/RlWXnm3j5vI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/_ga-vNmA4NI/s144/MapTextView.JPG"

Otherwise it's here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/reto.meier/ForumLinks/photo#5068123662379640562

I'm seeing this too, might be new... here are two screenshots for a search for [google hq]:

http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-maps-text-view-1.png
http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-maps-text-view-2.png

Yeah i can see it now..
I think it's new. :/

I saw that too, I even wrote an article on Zorgloob about it and I think Ionut did the same

It is just like the old Google Local interface!

Is there any way to search from a text interface from the start? Thanks

Yeah I've definately read an article about it before

Juan – looks like you can go to http://maps.google.com/maps?view=text to search directly from text mode. Might be an unpublished feature.

http://maps.google.com/maps?output=html is for the browsers that don't support JavaScript.