There are more and more choices available today for creating and sharing maps online. I created a map of my workplace using Microsoft Live here: View map
Here is a static image of the map linked above. It shows a “birds-eye view”.
In a standard 2D perspective, you can see that I’ve created annotations including a path and an area. Too bad I can’t export these annotations to a GPS!
Of course, Virtual Earth does not necessarily have very detailed hi-res imagery for every location you might want to view. Here’s a very out-dated image of my house — the pushpin denotes the site.
Interestingly, when I select a birds-eye view of the same location, I get this image.
This is really quite impressive. You can even make out the dog pool in the front of my house. Too bad you can’t do line drawing in this view.