History of Google Street View / Senegal
In May 2015, several Senegalese media announced that Google was starting to drive in the country for the first time.[1] Although in December 2014, Google started testing the Google Trekker in several historical sites and universities in Dakar.
In February 2017, Google officially announced Street View for Senegal following an event at the Djoloff Hotel with representatives of the Senegalese Ministry of Culture and Communication, including the former director of the cabinet, who indicated that the street view project would help promote both culture and tourism in the country.[2]
Additionally, Google officially announced trekker and tripod views for certain historical and tourist sites in Senegal including boat views of Lake Retba as well as views of the Hann Park and Monuments on Gorée Island, such as Maison d'Education Mariama Bâ.[3]
2015 Coverage - Gen 3 (Left) | 2021/2022 Coverage - Gen 4 (Right)
In addition, the Google team also photographed the historic area of the Île de Saint-Louis.[4]
In 2021, Google started to re-cover part of Senegal using gen 4 cameras using a pickup again. In early October 2022, Google Africa officially launched Street View with these cameras for Senegal and other African countries such as Kenya and Rwanda.[5]
The Gen 3 coverage of Senegal was quite sparse due to the short time span that the country was covered, while the Gen 4 updates tried to prioritize as much as possible to cover the urban and commercial areas of the country, where most of the missing suburbs were finally photographed (See Maps on the right side of the article).
2016 Coverage - Gen 3 (Left) | 2021/2022 Coverage - Gen 4 (Right)
Additionally in this update, new images were added for the first time in the southern regions of Senegal, specifically the Ziguinchor, Kolda and Sédhiou regions. Also, the local authorities in the city of Touba have restricted the taking of new images around the Touba Grand Mosque due to security reasons requiring special permits, the only part of the city containing only Gen 3 images dating back to 2016.
History
Note: We take into account the date when the coverage was taken, not the date when it was published.
Source: Senegal's Coverage Dates - Emily Geo Website
| Year | Additions |
| 2014 |
|
| 2015 |
|
| 2016 |
|
| 2017 |
|
| 2021 |
|
| 2022 |
|
| 2023 |
|
Gallery
Gen 3 Cameras
Gen 4 Cameras
Note: Credits to Mapper and Redpork for finding the images of the Gen 4 Pickup
Resources
- Detailed list about each tripod/trekker in Senegal
- Senegal at Google Street View Cars Mapped
References
"Street View de Google Maps : les Google Cars arpentent le Sénégal" (2015-05-13) Socialnetlink.org (in French)
Mbow, Abdoulaye (2017-02-20) "‘’GOOGLE STREET VIEW’’ : Le Sénégal, 1er pays en Afrique francophone à l’expérimenter" Impact.sn (in French)
"Google annonce de nouveaux endroits au Sénégal disponibles sur Street View" (2017-02-12) IT Mag. (in French)
"Se perdre dans les ruelles historiques de Saint-Louis avec Google Street View" (2017-02-14) Ndar Info (in French)
@googleafrica (2022-10-06) "To make Maps more useful, we updated Street View imagery in Kenya, South Africa, & Senegal , adding nearly 300,000 KLM of imagery" via Twitter
