New, sharper satellite imagery available for a handful of cities worldwide, with list to grow

When the new Yahoo! Maps beta debute, in the offing was promised new high-resolution satellite images in addition to thier current offering of Landsat images. [1] In this posting on the Yahoo! Local Maps blog, Michael Lawless, Yahoo! Maps’ Product Manager, has announced the first cities offered.

The list is quizzically mixed, with locations such as Munich, Germany and Manchester, England rubbing shoulders with Cozumel, Mexico and Black Rock City, Nevada; for now, users in New York City or Portland, Oregon (or Portland, Maine, for that matter) are out of luck. However, they do say they plan on adding new cities on a continual basis, so keep an eye on them.

Cartography’s CCAer has taken a look at the maps and writes that, compared to Google maps the imagery is not as sharp but seems brighter, also, the image at smaller scales is more seamless though it takes longer to load; [2] read his critique here.