I opened Camino to test google maps on that browser and since I had not opened Camino in a month or so it asked to upgrade but it also checked "Flash" and asked to upgrade this because it was outdated. I re-tried google maps "get directions" between two points on Firefox after the Flash update and it Worked!! It is a pity that so much of the web is relying on Flash. Yes its cool but its also a huge pain. I just wanted to quickly respond to my own post in case others are having similar problems and just need to update Flash. Cheers

I have been running into this annoying problem as well. Trying to get directions between any two addresses results in forever "Loading..." and I've seen this in FF, IE and Chrome. My solution? Bing maps.

http://www.bing.com/maps/?FORM=Z9LH4

For me it's much more responsive than google maps. It's ironic that google's need to force more features (and bugs) on me for a simple task has driven me there. I won't be going back, unless Bing screws up their interface.

I can still get the basic directions to work in Google Maps, but recently the 3D driving directions has stopped working, and I'm pretty sure it stopped just about one Firefox update back. I realize this function is gravy to many people - a toy - but for someone who uses visual cues it has been extremely useful for imprinting the information in my mind, familiarizing myself with the route ahead of the drive. When I am traveling without a 'navigator' - a passenger who can read the directions as I drive - this is a huge help. Today I got a message about updating the GoogleEarth plugin, which I did - twice! Still no 3d directions, though suddenly the GG 3d driving simulator works. This has to be a FF problem :-(