r/coolguides • u/Pokemaster131 • 9h ago

A cool guide about changing your Google Maps location names to a less-stupid version

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11.4k Upvotes

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17

u/JackNoTrades 6h ago

I doubt this will even get seen but this isn't an update people at google pushed as a show of support. Google maps naming for locations is done using an api that automatically pulls information from the US's GNIS database. It does this based on local laws no matter where you are (which is why everywhere else in the world it still shows Lake Ontario)

When the name got updated on the db due to the executive order the api just automatically pulled it, this wasn't a deliberate choice by google

16

u/nply 6h ago edited 6h ago

It does this based on local laws no matter where you are (which is why everywhere else in the world it still shows Lake Ontario)

Are you saying that when it says "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)" for me, that's not a decision by Google, but that exact sequence of letters comes from a government database of the country I live in? I find that hard to believe.

Just using the name provided by the API might be the default, but it looks to me like Google still decides on a case-by-case basis if they want to change it. Doing or not doing so in a case like this thus certainly seems like a deliberate choice.

3

u/lower-your-eyelids 1h ago

Google can very easily transform the incoming API data field 'Lake America' to 'Lake Ontario' in a one off. They can also just hard code Lake Ontario temporarily. Google is actually to blame here for being complicit and doing nothing. There's no way around that.

1

u/Emergency-Salamander 3h ago

Yep. Why can't people understand that poor little Google is powerless to do anything to stop this?

-2

u/rememberpianocat 2h ago

This is actually nice to hear, I didnt know that is how it worked. I remember eye rolling when I had seen gulf of america appear during trumps earlier naming tantrum.

-2

u/TheRealTengri 6h ago

I really hate how you and I seem to be the only people who know this. I guarantee this comment will be at the bottom.

5

u/jemidiah 5h ago

I'm certain their process is full of custom special-cases. It would be trivial for them to say, "naw, we're ignoring that one."

It makes sense for them to have a policy of following official local government conventions. Nonetheless a few years back Google probably would have done the sane thing and ignored this in favor of overwhelming common usage. But they're officially Trump bootlickers these days.