1) When did you first notice this problem?
end of 2008

2) Can you quantify "incredibly slow", eg, "It used to take around 4 seconds to load Maps and now it takes around 20" or "Maps loads fast but search results take at least 15 seconds to come back" etc.
maps loads, but i cannot drag anything, not zoom, no nothing. so, while i see the "first page" as i should, it is perfectly useless as i cannot do anything. if i enter a search term and then search, nothing happens. always "Loading...", then "Still loading...etc."

3) Which browsers, operating systems, and (if possible) security patchlevels do you have?
Firefox 3.0 -3.0.11, Win XP SP2

4) What other software is installed on your computer, eg, do you have any toolbars, chat clients, etc installed?
have skype installed, but never use it simultaneously.

5) If you know how to use the CPU monitoring facility of your operating system, is the CPU maxed out during page load, or does it seem to be waiting on the network?
cpu is between 0 and 22%

6) Which area of the world are you connecting from? Metro-area granularity is ideal but I'll take country-level too :-)
Germany, Ruhr Area

7) The numbers at the bottom of the sourcecode.
<!--17259,200494,200578-->




WHEN I AM NOT LOGGED IN, everything works as it should, no problems whatsoever. But as i need to use "My Maps" that doesn't help me very much. If I am logged out the following numbers are at the bottom of the source.
<!--17259,17287,17297,17300,17310,102331,109418,109422,109471,109487,109497,109509,109528,109543,200494,200578-->