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this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2025
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Get Organic Maps! It’s open source.
Apple Maps in Canada still seems to be labelled The Gulf of Mexico for now
Why they changed it, I can't say.
(Donald just liked it better that way.)
Y'know, this wouldn't be so bad if it were renamed, "Gulf of the Americas" - eg, North America and South America. Added bonus: It's not what Trump wanted so he'll be pissed.
The reason why people are protesting the random changing of the name is the vast amount of work it generates. Websites, textbooks, maps, etc. will all have to be updated (and all this accumulates to a couple million dollars). By this logic, “Gulf of the Americas” is just as bad.
Only in the US, and for mapping companies that now have to treat the US as a "sensitive" country.
The rest of the world can continue to call it by its internationally recognised name.
I see your point about generating work, but name changes happen - German shepherd dogs becoming "Alsatians" during WW2, Mt. McKinley, a bunch of things in the US. But if it's going to be changed, let's not make it what Trump wants. He probably can't even find it on a map anyway.
It‘s the 9 dash line all over again. It‘s so petty and pathetic.
You're next, New Mexico!
You mean Arizona 2?
Don’t let Trump find out this State exists.
OsmAnd still holding out! I will never not call it the Gulf of Mexico.
I think the world should stop calling USians americans. America is a huge place spanning 2 continents encompassing so many different cultures uniquely American. I always thought it was weird calling Mexicans in the US, Mexican American. It's like saying American American. Wouldn't Mexicans in Mexico also be Mexican Americans? Just never felt right to me.
That’s just a quirk of the English language. In Brazil we also call them “North Americans” instead of Americans, because Americans refer to all countries and peoples in the Americas.
That's exactly how I think of it, Americans are the peoples of the America's, North, Central and South. The people in the US should not hold a monopoly on that name as it somehow infers that the rest of the Americas are somehow less American and their just not. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong as i grew up in the US and we regularly refer to ourselves as american and the rest of the America's just don't do that because of our cultural and linguistic differences. Maybe more a remnant of imperialism than a quark of the english language.
In Spanish you say “estadounidense” which is pretty much “unitedstatesian”.
They do that shit even in other languages, where it is clearly and simply wrong.
Regardless of your stance on the name change, doesn't the executive order (and subsequent updating of the names register or whatever it's called) make it official? In which case the maps are just being updated to reflect it.
Afaik they're not changing it anywhere outside the US as (so far...) that's the only place it's been changed, so it's not like they're pushing that name in places where it's not official.
It's also not unheard of to have map details that vary depending on where you are, to align with the official stance of wherever the map is being viewed from. Ukraine, bits of the India/Pakistan border, IIRC some islands off Japan disputed by China, etc.
Not saying the name change isn't stupid and not suggesting at all that the companies in question aren't scum, but getting angry at the map maintainers for this change seems pointless. What did you expect them to do?
Am I missing something?
Thank you for taking the time to post this. I didn’t have the energy to explain to all the teenagers here that these companies have two choices: comply with this completely legal name change, or go to war with the White House over it to make some kind of statement. Gee I’d love it if big companies were out there jousting windmills over principles but I’d never expect it in a million years, at any stage of capitalism or under any other economic system. The business of business is business.
Google Maps shows the translation of Gulf of America in parentheses in all languages, everywhere. That's like if Mexico renamed the gulf to La biblioteca and they changed it for everyone. That's objectively wrong.
As absolutely stupid as this is, it's no different than changing the maps to show Denali rather than Mount McKinley. I don't think you're missing anything.
Is it no different, or is it different in a kind of huge obvious way? Denali is US property. The gulf ain't.
Anglophones call Deutschland "Germany", and we don't even share a border with them.
Also meaningfully different, unless there is an executive order or it's anglo-equivalent I'm unaware of. Many languages have a name for other countries that is different than the name those countries give themselves. Shall we use Germany itself as an example? How do you say South Africa in German? Südafrika, not Republic of South Africa, Republiek van Suid-Afrika, or any other the other 11 official languages from that country.
Okay, sure, but that's just a translation of South and Africa and everyone knows Germans physically cannot resist compound words, so how about France?
It ain't République française, or even Französische Republik. It's Frankreich. This stuff generally happens organically and language develops slower than politics, as evidenced by Frankreich. That's a lot different than this Executive Order. That's an imperial move.
Reported in Apple Maps as incorrect name. Won’t change anything, but it needed to be done.
Yeah me too. And a snide comment about supporting this douchebag. Made me feel better at least.
I wrote that “Gulf of America” is only used by an authoritarian regime and “not widely used.”
Please everyone do your part to report the incorrect information on google maps.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Maps app.
- Navigate to the gulf of Mexico
- Tap Menu (your profile pictude) "Send Feedback" (way at the bottom) or "Help & Feedback". Send product feedback.
I couldn't find this "Send feedback" section
Could be called help & feedback all the way at the bottom after selection of your profile picture/bubble in the top left.
End stage capitalism.
Organic Maps is great btw.
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