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
Trump is not a king, and outside of the executive branch, his executive orders have no binding power.
Google et. al. Are, last I checked, not part of the executive branch, and are under no obligation to abide by Trump renaming bodies of water.
They’re doing it because they want to. Because they know it will make Trump happy.
Replying to @Furbag@pawb.social
It’s the official GNIS name now, and is usually just piped into the maps. There aren’t people actually deciding which names to use at Google, HERE, whatever, etc … we just push sources in.
They’re doing it because they want to. Because they know it will make Trump happy.
sure, ok … guess you know more than my 20+ years experience at a digital map company that actually taught google how to make their maps.
Replying to @silentjohn@lemmy.ml
Google deciding to continue using a dataset that has been completely captured by a megalomaniac at the head of an authoritarian regime is on them. I cannot stress enough that they do not have to use GNIS, as evidenced by all the other map apps that, y’know, don’t.