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.
The Google Maps change does only seems to be visible for people with US IPs. But I assume that Apple Maps, Mapquest, Mapbox, Bing (TIL Bing has a map feature), etc all use GNIS to label features too, right? None of them have changed the name yet. Seems unlikely that all of them would still be out-of-sync with upstream, and let Google drink their milkshake like this.
In fact, the map for the federal government’s Geographic Names Information System database, which informs these changes, still showed Lake Ontario as of Sunday morning, with a note that the maps are “in the process of being updated to reflect this name change.”
Sure looks to me like Google made the change before the basemaps were updated. It’s now 23:40 EDT Sunday, and GNIS still says Lake Ontario…so yeah, I think this is on them. Dear Leader told them to jump, and they rushed to show him how high they could get.
unlikely that all of them would still be out-of-sync with upstream
It’s not like we all have one live server that ingests source changes and the customers will see it immediately. There is a massively delay, release schedules, etc.
Sure looks to me like Google made the change before the basemaps were updated
But yea, you could be right on this specific point
It’s not like we all have one live server that ingests source changes and the customers will see it immediately. There is a massively delay, release schedules, etc
Good! Sounds like there’s plenty of time built in to the system for impact analysis, change management, QA, and the like, to avoid pushing unnecessary updates that end up pissing everyone off.
You are aware this is not the only thing Trump has done, right? That there is a whole context of him and his collaborators doing shit for decades which this particular decision should be considered part of.
Google shows the renamed gulf of mexico in europe too. From memory, it initially fully renamed it and then much later started showing both. But they’re clearly not just following local gov exec policy.
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.
Except it’s not official. An executive order means the executive branch has to use that name. Nobody else does.
It is official in the eyes of the US Government. I’m simply explaining why some/most map companies will include the change.
The Google Maps change does only seems to be visible for people with US IPs. But I assume that Apple Maps, Mapquest, Mapbox, Bing (TIL Bing has a map feature), etc all use GNIS to label features too, right? None of them have changed the name yet. Seems unlikely that all of them would still be out-of-sync with upstream, and let Google drink their milkshake like this.
According to this Wired article:
Sure looks to me like Google made the change before the basemaps were updated. It’s now 23:40 EDT Sunday, and GNIS still says Lake Ontario…so yeah, I think this is on them. Dear Leader told them to jump, and they rushed to show him how high they could get.
It’s not like we all have one live server that ingests source changes and the customers will see it immediately. There is a massively delay, release schedules, etc.
But yea, you could be right on this specific point
Good! Sounds like there’s plenty of time built in to the system for impact analysis, change management, QA, and the like, to avoid pushing unnecessary updates that end up pissing everyone off.
Who gets to determine if they’re unnecessary updates?
EDIT/Update: ‘Lake America’ is currently under discussion from our Geopolitical Policy Board.
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i think that’s a bit of a rash reaction to changing the name of a lake locally
You are aware this is not the only thing Trump has done, right? That there is a whole context of him and his collaborators doing shit for decades which this particular decision should be considered part of.
Google shows the renamed gulf of mexico in europe too. From memory, it initially fully renamed it and then much later started showing both. But they’re clearly not just following local gov exec policy.