CG, in the past I'd just do a screen capture of a selection of the Gogle Map, then upload it to my Picasa Web Album (from here on, called "PWA").
Then I found that while on a Google Map, whether in Map View, Earth View, I suppose "Hybrid" and coolest of all,
Street View, there's a link thingy in the upper right of the screen. When you click it, it gives a shortened URL of what you're looking at. This, for example, is a Map view of Pátzcuaro:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]But it seems to me that until recently, there was an Embed feature under "Link". I can't find it now. I do know that I used it a couple of times on mt blog to embed a Street View of a small area of foodie interest in Mexico City. Here it is. You'll need to scroll down a ways to see it, below the photo of the couple in the leafy bower. Give it time to load.
It was just about a year ago, and I remember doing it, but I'd have to lift the hood to see what makes it run.
O.k. I'm back, with the HTML code or whatever it is that runs that embedded map engine. I seriously doubt it will run in this environment.
¿Listo?
iframe frameborder="0" height="240" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&layer=c&cbll=19.430195,-99.142482&panoid=AT1xUuLiycd2rx1zHeEfGA&cbp=13,290.03,,0,5&msa=0&msid=116027647525085864440.000479c78b9e7592fb66a&ll=19.455424,-99.15247&spn=0,0.096474&z=13&iwloc=00048a13006b27bcbf671&source=embed&output=svembed" width="425"></iframe>
<small>View <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&layer=c&cbll=19.430195,-99.142482&panoid=AT1xUuLiycd2rx1zHeEfGA&cbp=13,290.03,,0,5&msa=0&msid=116027647525085864440.000479c78b9e7592fb66a&ll=19.455424,-99.15247&spn=0,0.096474&z=13&iwloc=00048a13006b27bcbf671&source=embed" style="color: blue; text-align: left;">Mexico City, D.f.</a> in a larger map, or play with this built-in street view. Click the cross in the upper right corner to expand to full screen. Explore el Barrio de San Juan from your computer!</small>
Google is always tinkering with Maps and the tools available one day may not be available the next. I've seen small changes take place within minutes, for example the tabs to select Map Satellite or Earth changed from static to floating tabs. I hope that they bring back the Embed code so we can use it at our discretion.