Google is set to take the beauty of the continent of Africa to a whole new level as the Internet giant has added more African countries to its Street View feature that provides panoramic views from positions along many streets in the world, and also launching #HashCode2017 challenge.
Google’s Street View Program Manager, Dirk Friedrich, made this development known at the weekend with a blogpost.
Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expanded to include cities and rural areas worldwide.
“We’re excited to announce that starting today, you can take virtual tours of some of the most iconic landmarks and monuments in Ghana, Senegal and Uganda. With this launch, Street View now covers 81 countries from across the world, 7 of which are in Africa,” said Friedrich.
“We are excited that what began with a few South African cities in 2009 has now expanded to many other cities in 7 countries across the continent.
“From Cape Town to Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and now Ghana, Uganda and Senegal, we are glad that more people from around the world are turning to Street View to get a glimpse of this beautiful continent,” the Street View program manager added.
Meanwhile, Google has launched its annual Hash Code challenge for 2017, which is currently trending on social media using #HashCode2017 hash tag.
Hash Code is a team-based programming competition organized by Google for university students and industry professionals across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
To participate, programmers pick a team and the programming language they wish to code with. Participants compete in teams of two to four. Registration is free of charge and will close on 20th February 2017 at 18:00 CET.
Using their own computer, programming language and tools of choice, participating teams will be tasked with solving a real-life challenge created by Google engineers. For the Online Qualification Round, Google says teams can compete from anywhere, including from one of its Hash Code hubs.
Top scoring teams from the Online Qualification Round will be notified on 28th February 2017 and invited to the Final Round at Google Paris.
“We’ll present a second challenge, and the winning teams will be awarded cool Google prizes,” Google said.
In addition to the competition, participants will also get the chance to learn more about Google through a variety of tech talks and presentations.