Google says it will change Gulf of Mexico to 'Gulf of America' in Maps after government updates

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Because the president should have no say in naming geographic locations that have long agreed upon names. And it’s a waste of money to have to replace all the maps and books with updated names.

There’s also no reason for Google to change anything. The US government has no power to make Google use this new name instead of the widely agreed upon name.

It’s a nod to the fact that if Trump says jump google will say “how high?” And no one with any sense likes that bigot.

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That's an interesting theory, we may just test that out.

But I suspect that ten years from now, it's name will be whatever it's been saying on the maps. Just ask New Yorkers (sorry, I mean new Amsterdamers).

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Yeah, I'm with you.

This timeline took a serious nosedive somewhere around 2015. I'm no longer sure think we're pulling out of it...

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They did (in Russia).

The maps look different when viewed in different regions.

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The gulf of mexico and gulf of america thread on the Open Street Map forum is interesting and worth a read.

https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/gulf-of-america-gulf-of-mexico/124571

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It's giving big "freedom fries" energy. Makes sense when you think about how much of a wet dream the post-9/11 circle jerk was (is) for conservatives. They're trying to recreate the same 2002 Republican, plastic-patriot distraction machine again.

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This idea originated as a Stephen Colbert joke in 2010. As always I'm sure some will call this some sort of self-aware troll by Trump, but what are the odds of that.

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HK and Tibet are part of China in all maps. Did you mean Taiwan?

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And it’s a waste of money to have to replace all the maps and books with updated names.

Who prints the books? They probably made a big contribution to Trump

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This is a good reminder and sanity check. Things this big are rarely easy to change.

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True. This is how it is with [Arabian|Persian] Gulf.

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You know Google owns Waze right?

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I think tutanota (now tuta) is pretty decent.

https://tuta.com/

Someone feel free to correct if I missed something bad about them.

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How do people not understand that Google Maps is regional, and the region sees their official government-endorsed maps?

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Given Colbert took the absurdity of conservatism in the US and cranked it up to 11... I'm not surprised it's becoming reality now.

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The discussion seems to be focused around possibly waiting for one or more governing bodies to rule on the name change, or just going along with it and adding an alternate text for people who would prefer the old one, which I think is way more democratic than anything Trump had in mind when signing this XO.

I certainly prefer this over the blind deference that Google seems to have for an executive order that is functionally just direction to the state department and not legally binding in any way whatsoever.

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Well yeah, as of 6 years ago, after China invaded with military force, HK has been recognized as part of China on all maps. But Google showed it as part of China even before then.

And then yeah, I just remembered the wrong name, it was the border of Tibet/Bhutan that was in dispute, so parts of Bhutan display as Chinese territory.

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HK was handed back to PRC, there was a ceremony and everything. Just because it was stolen by the British for sometime doesn't mean it isn't Chinese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handover_of_Hong_Kong

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Well the openstreetmap community aren't employed by a bunch of hacks perching on a tower of cardboard held together by a failing scheme of duck tape that nobody left after all the layoffs and enshittification knows how to repair.

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@ubergeek @ricdeh Are we far off minor skirmishes and war-ettes over what big G names various places?

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Google says it will change Gulf of Mexico to 'Gulf of America' in Maps after government updates