There is almost nothing cooler about the internet than Mapquest’s free aerial photo offering. More useful than nearly anything else I’ve ever seen. It helps with my work, it helps with personal stuff. It’s fantastic.
Also, it’s now GONE. No mention that it ever even existed on Mapquest’s website.
Obviously somebody was losing money somewhere in the deal. And now we all get the shaft.
Does anybody know of an alternate way to get aerial photos?
NOOOOOOO!!! Does this mean I have to use Terraserver again? 
Go to the source
Last time I used it, Terraserver had all old blurry black and white photos, where the Mapquest ones were clear, crisp, and in color for most areas.
Yes, one can go to globexplorer, but it isn’t as handy as looking up directions to someone’s house, then getting the aerial photo to help recognize the place with just a single click… Oh and they plaster their logo tiled across the image unless you pay for it.
I notice that they’ve got newer photos since I last checked… when I look at my house, I can see my van! 
Oh… looks like you can see the images without the watermark if you pay their $30/month membership fee. (Versus buying hardcopy prints of the images on a per-image basis.) Woo. Sign me right up.
I recall seeing very cool aerial pictures around 5 years ago - and then the pictures were much smaller when we were searching for a new house a little over a year ago. It doesn’t surprise me that they are charging for the service now - the images from 5 years ago were astounding. We could see a red car in front of our (soon to be) new house. It’s sad that the service isn’t free - but, if I knew the images would be current, I would pay $30 a year and sign up. I can’t describe it, but it’s very awesome to see what your house looks like from a snapshot taken from the heavens.
IIRC Terraserver once had, a few years ago, a much easier to use interface with greater detail photos (without paying). Then I checked back recently and it was… well… crappy.
Now Mapquest’s photos are gone?
argh, I had just found them.
I might go for $30/year, too… but the subscription rates are:
Subscription Packages (please choose one)
monthly subscription
cost: $29.95
duration: 1 Month
annual subscription
cost: $249.95
duration: 1 Year