posted in Technology
Google Maps changes Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’ for U.S. users
www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/google-maps-changes-lake-ontario-to-lake-america-for-us-users/
Replying to @return2ozma@lemmy.world
Watching these corporate collaborators fall all over themselves to enact the profoundly stupid and short-sighted whims of a sodden, rotting corpse when they could just…not do that…has been one of the most surreal experiences of my life.
The sad thing is, thanks to their capture of both parties, I have no conceit they’ll actually experience any consequences for it. We have handed power to some of the least-deserving ghouls the Wharton School of Business ever squeezed out.
Replying to @DoctorNope@lemmy.world
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.
Replying to @silentjohn@lemmy.ml
What you say about local names is correct, however the issue is that Demented Don has just decided that this is a good way to punish Canada. It is still surprising that a president can make such a change by executive order and there is no uproar in the US.
Replying to @Greyghoster@aussie.zone
We’ve got bigger things to worry about than feature naming tbh.
Replying to @silentjohn@lemmy.ml
It’s just symptomatic of the destruction of social and diplomatic capital (pardon the cold calculating economic word) that this old demented fools is engaged in. His economic destruction and greed and theft is another story.
Replying to @Greyghoster@aussie.zone
1000% agree. And maps are absolutely political, but this is just another distraction.