It may have been a while, but it feels like 80%+ of these "new customization features" were things you could do in the original google earth / maps. Now days, you type in the name of a street, it doesn't even show you the whole street. It just zooms in on a random part it thinks you wanted. And I'm very sure that placing pins was a default ability with very little digging. Once upon a time these were obvious and core features, not something you'd brag about just now adding to the maps.
This is just like that time Google gave me (back?) the ability to use a handle on youtube to protect my real name...I never stopped using the handle in the first place.