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The 'OG' online map platform, MapQuest, says it won't change the name of Lake Ontario (www.businessinsider.com)
submitted 5 days ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 202 points 5 days ago (3 children)

It's not that MapQuest won't change it, it's that the name hasn't changed.

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  • [–] 82 points 5 days ago (2 children)

    But Goog map added "Gulf of America" under the Gulf of Mexico while MapQuest retain the Gulf of Mexico, so even when it has changed for USA MapQuest basically saying they won't follow.

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  • [–] 61 points 5 days ago (4 children)

    Again, not that they won't follow, it's that the name hasn't changed. Trump can do what he likes and he can probably force the executive branch to use the name in official documentation, but other than that this stunt means nothing

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  • [–] 32 points 5 days ago

    Hi, I work in the map industry. We generally don't get to decide what names to use for features. We apply what the local official name is (to simplify). That's why if you're in country A, feature X might be named something different than if you're in country B. You can imagine this would (and has) caused many conflicts around the world if we didn't display the local official name. (Switch your region via VPN and you can see this in action)

    If Google renamed it to Gulf of America, no Google didn't, not really ... They just inserted the new official name for that feature according to GNIS.

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  • [–] 11 points 5 days ago (3 children)

    The name of something is not an inherent property of that thing. All names are assigned.

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  • [–] 11 points 5 days ago*

    The distinction is that before Trump decided to hijack it for political purposes, the US government put a lot of thought and work into official names.

    For big things like the gulf of Mexico, or lake Ontario, there shouldn't be a lot of confusion. But what about the little creek by your house? A series of inlets on a coastline? What if you have dozens of places with the same name; how do you differentiate? What if you have regional local names that differ from the name that outsiders use? What if you have competing names in general parlance? When you type it into a gps, where will it send you?

    The U.S. Board of Geographical Names handled all these issues and more, and had been a trusted authority on place names, that mapmakers, businesses, and other governments all trusted to do a good job.

    Still today, you can check out the GNIS and find out all kinds of cool stuff. Try searching for "Sugarloaf" to find all the mountains people named after a common thing, or "Denali" or "Washington"; you can find a lot of cool stuff on here, including alternate names for places. (https://www.usgs.gov/tools/geographic-names-information-system-gnis)

    It is disgusting that the republicans are destroying years and years of slowly building trust and doing good work that helps all Americans because (check notes) it would be funny if he decreed the name were stupider?

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  • [–] 4 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    Meaning if I visit the lake they won't change all the signage?

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  • [+] -8 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    Well I mean I can guarantee they won't be changed around some parts of it lol. What kind of dumbass question is this? You think changing a sign makes something real?

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  • [–] 9 points 5 days ago (2 children)

    You think changing a sign makes something real?

    For official matters, yes.

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  • [–] -2 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    What official matters? There is undoubtedly now be some official documentation with this name on it. There will be lots that isn't.

    Let me ask you then. Personally in your view what is the name of that lake

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  • [–] 6 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    You should ask a kid that when they grow up with Gulf of America and Lake America or wherever we’re at now after being on their phones for their entire lives, not people that have grown up with the entirely different name and old name.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago

    Good, I fucking hate google maps, it's a shit product. They don't tell you the name of roads, making you zoom way way in to see the name, which they might not show you anyway. One would think tapping on that road would be a good way to bring it's name into service, but no, fuck you.

    Fuck Google. The only thing I can't quit completely is youtube, for now. But I never log in, and never respect their age control bullshit. You ask me to verify my age, I will either find the information elsewhere, or not see it at all. Fuck Google.

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  • [–] 34 points 5 days ago (4 children)

    Yeah, I'm pretty sure the United States can't change the name of a body of water that's shared between multiple countries. If it's not that, it still hasn't gotten any sort of congressional approval.
    Edit: Lake Michigan is the only one that's fully within the US. The others are patrolled by both the US Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard, both have the ability to arrest anyone on either side of the border. The state governments that border the lakes have some power over them, but they're held in trust for public use. The International Joint Commission resolves any disputes regarding them. I'm not quite sure what would have to go into changing the name of Lake Ontario, but it would at least require Canadian approval and US congressional approval, perhaps even approval from the state of New York and the province of Ontario. Oh yeah, this is also completely stupid and should under no circumstances actually happen.

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  • [–] 27 points 5 days ago (2 children)

    Gonna be really hard to get Canadian congressional approval as we have no congress

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  • [–] 14 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    That sounds nice.

    If Trump really wants to turn the screws, he can make it a requirement of federal contracts that all contractors use maps that comply with his infantile demmands.

    I think you're kind of living in a pre-Trump reality where laws and procedures means something. It's a super bad idea to feel comfortable with this administration because something they want to do is technically illegal. Everything is up for grabs right now.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 days ago

    I partly just thought that going over what it would require could be interesting. You're right, he can try to make contractors do that. But that doesn't mean that citizens of either country are actually going to honor the name. Sure, Google and Apple will change their maps to suck him off, but nearly nobody is ever going to unironically call it Lake America. I live in Alabama, a deeply conservative state that borders the Gulf of Mexico. Even here, nobody calls it the Gulf of America. Odds are, he'll forget about this shit just as quickly.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    Technically, there is no lake Michigan, only lake Michigan-Huron.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago (1 child)

    Interesting. So why exactly is a distinction made? Some political reason from the past?

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  • [–] 4 points 5 days ago (2 children)

    I'm pretty sure the United States can't change the name of a body of water that's shared between multiple countries.

    Someone forgot about the GuLf Of AmErIcA already

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago (1 child)

    I didn't forget, but I'm pretty sure Trump has. I don't think he's talked about it in quite a while. I've never heard anybody actually call it the Gulf of America, and I live in the Deep South. I'm not sure it's even used by the departments in the executive branch. This will probably be a similar situation.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago (1 child)

    Didn't forget. Name never changed

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