Great idea!
We typed an address in Manhattan to try the new feature out. With the Short URL feature turned off, our shareable URL for this address was “http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=41+11th+St,+New+York,+NY&sll=40.745612,-74.008065&sspn=0.010794,0.020707&g=41+11th+Avenue,+New+York,+NY&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=41+W+11th+St,+New+York,+10011&ll=40.734925,-73.997099&spn=0.002699,0.005177&t=h&z=18.”
Ouch! When we navigated into Labs and checked the box to enable Short URL, it became a simple “http://goo.gl/maps/2cl8.” That’s much better.