Hello,
I encountered an error when I tried to load the map using AJAX, it broke my page because of the error described here:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14229695/google-maps-api-throws-uncaught-referenceerror-google-is-not-defined-only-whe
My workaround for now is to show the map all the time, which probably suffices for us. I just wanted to give you a heads up on the error I got.
You need an object to load the map. Why don't you create the object and keep it hidden?