Apple still lists the lake as Ontario on their maps, so for now it’s just Google being particularly sycophantic towards the Trump administration.
Apple well change it though, they did for the Gulf of Mexico.
I am in the long process of DeGoogling. When I saw this post I set my VPN location to Canada.
Spain here… still says Lake Ontario on mine
But I remember when the “Gulf of America” was declared, it still said Gulf of Mexico for a while, after a while it changed it to both names:
Sad state of affairs, but this is google 🤷♂️
I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the room at Google where the discussions are being had as to what to label the lake. If I’m to be charitable, I’d assume they’ve renamed it because they’re consistently following an internal rule which says they use geographic names from the GNIS, which was updated by the executive order, and they haven’t yet decided whether they should make an exception in this case. Every nonsensical rename in the GNIS weakens its credibility as an accurate database. I’m sure the debates are interesting. We don’t actually know if this is Google “bending the knee” or sticking with the rename for some other more technical reason.
Google has no decision to make here. They have a policy and system that aligns geographical names based on country records. The rest of the world will continue to see Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario. Those are not the only two conflicted names across the world, there are far more.
Well good, about time they put warnings on maps. Above is the lake, below is america. You have been warned.
I’m just going to play devil’s advocate because it was essentially mandated that they change it. What does google say outside of the US though? If they changed it for Canadians or non-US, then absolutely they deserve all the pitchforks. If it’s just in US, well, we shouldn’t be mad at them for this one.
It’s an executive order, no business has to follow it.
They’re picking their battles. They could go against this, but what would they win? Mild PR from users? They have a lot more to lose. I have no love for google but this was never going to be a fight they were going to make.
They could go against this, but what would they win?
Accuracy. Literally the #1 thing I value in maps. Changing the name tells me that they care about political appeasement more than accuracy.
It would be a solid PR move to ignore the orange pedophile’s tantrums, but all of silicon valley is just another head of the same grotesque chimera that is the US ruling class.
Eh I don’t think it would. The vast majority of American’s don’t care, or eyeroll. The blame right now isn’t on google, it’s on the one who signed the order. Those who do care are a very small minority. So maybe Google gets a bit of PR? But they also piss off the white house, and valiant or not we’ve seen how petty they can be there.
European here just checked it still says Ontario on mine. Checked gmaps on android and ios as well as Apple Maps, all say Ontario here.
Thanks for checking! Yup makes sense. In that case I see it purely as they flipped it in the US, it’s not their fight to have.
Can executive orders force private companies to change how they name something? It sounds like a First Amendment issue.
Incredible that anyone wants to work for such Pscho corporations. They must be incredibly ignorant outside their job-function - I hope…
Really Bud?Its well known that Google Maps shows different names/borders depending on where the user accesses it from
Wrong.
Fuck Google.
If it’s true, it’s probably geolocked to only the US seeing it.
IIRC they did this with the Gulf of Mexico too
I see Gulf of America in parentheses. You know, like a participation trophy.
I’m from the US but moved to Sweden a year ago. It’s changed for me when I look at it. So maybe it’s not specifically geolocjed but has to do with where my account was set up, or some localization setting somewhere?
Guaranteed is. This is not new to Google, they have disputed territories, disputed names, they have gone through this before. This is just Americans seeing it for the first time. Google probably has an admin page that let’s them set it up without ever needing an engineer anymore. If you’re within this polygon you see this line, else you see the line over there. The alternative is they get sued/shut down in that country/ etc. While I have no love for Google, this is simply them picking their battles.
I remember Google doing it with the Gulf of Mexico, so they shouldn’t be too surprised it wasn’t that long ago.
this is simply them picking their battles.
name a battle they picked to fight for the benefit of the common man in the last :
- 1 month
- 3 months
- 6 months
- 1 Year
If they’re picking battles, they must have done something worthwhile, right?
No, that’s not what I said, I said they’re picking their battles, and I didn’t offer any reason or justification for why. You can do that if you choose, but I’m not going to go off and do errands to prove a point I wasn’t making.
I said they’re picking their battles, and I didn’t offer any reason or justification for why
OK, and I’m saying they are not picking anything, and just rolling over. There is no fucking battle that they are fighting, so they aren’t picking any battles.
To directly answer the question: within the last 3 or 6 months (I’m not sure precisely), they banned multiple youtubers that were placing ads to work for Russian Alabuga and it’s drone production. It’s an example of using their weight, in this case even something good.
On the other hand, I mostly actually agree with you. While I do think that they are picking their battles, I also think which battles they go into is usually not in your or mine interests. Instead, the battles are frequently in the interests of the richest google investors (think 10M+) and the US government, as of late. The Alabuga case above is a good and noteworthy exception.
Look, I hate Google as much as the next guy, but do you know what the phrase “picking your battles” actually means?
Yeah, reserving your resources for moments that actually matter instead of wasting them for every petty issue.
But I don’t think they are reserving anything for any moment, worthwhile or not. So they aren’t “picking their battles” they are “doing jack shit”
Possibly, but that doesn’t look like a maps compass rose I’ve ever seen.
Could be for Android or something.
Here’s what I see on iOS in Australia
It is Android.
Still says Lake Ontario for me, on Android, in Google Maps. I’m in Europe
2 hours later and they’ve fully renamed it.
It’s still Ontario in Germany (Android).
American here, currently traveling through the (boring) state of Nebraska.
I just checked Google Maps from my Android tablet app. It shows Lake America for me:
Just because a boot liker calls something by a name, does not make it so, if anything, when you hear someone say “THe guLf of aMericA” you know on the spot, you don’t loose anything by stopping the conversation right there and then.
Something like this happened in the recent past and now Mexicans are starting to call it the Rio Grande instead of the Rio Bravo
Its no longer wild or grand.
As of 2026-08-30:
Are you viewing this from America? Because Google changes the names of things based on the country you are in.
I’m in the USA and GoogleMaps shows Lake America right now.
Apple Maps shows Lake Ontario
Other search engines exist
Lets be real though, nobody comes close on the quality of Google Maps.
Just about every map works fine these days. Google tends to route the inefficient routes once you learn your city. Ignoring it tends to be faster, then at that point, you don’t “need” map apps at all.
At least in my experience, OpenStreetMap has far, far superior depictions of hiking trails. Edge case I know, but still, it demonstrates that Google maps does not actually reign fully supreme and can be bested.
Osm is superior for hiking and very local data. Google is still a requirement for navigating Toronto traffic/construction.
Haven’t used google maps in years. OpenStreetMap rules. It may not have all the POIs but it does just fine for navigation and stuff, and I can find addresses of businesses the old fashioned way, using their website.
Ugh, they finally did it. I was checking both of them daily. Apple Maps still calls it Lake Ontario, but it’s only a matter of time until Tim Cook bends the knee. He’s the one who gave 47 a participation trophy made of gold.
Honestly, this isn’t that terrible of Google. VPN outside the US and see what it says. I had to VPN in to get it to show up. Turn off the VPN, and it’s back to Lake Ontario after force quitting the app and reloading it. There are a ton of instances where a country changes a name, or another country does not respect a change and map makers have to support those differences there. Yes the change was political, but changes like that are just part of running a map service.
I mean, if you wanna dump on Google, we can talk about how they’re charging iPhone 17 Pro prices for iPhone 11 (or Galaxy S10) power and selling your personal information on the side. It’s not hard to make Google look bad. Hell, just stand aside and wave at all the shit they do and your case is made.
Humanity has a clear version of evil and has failed to deal with it. Humanity is pathetic.
Some of us are dealing with it, but since it was another country who’s people democratically elected evil all we can do is boycott. Unfortunately, the people in that country can’t be bothered to even do that; all they can manage is to wave some signs around on the occasional weekend.
That country always elects evil, but pretends otherwise
That’s just capitalism and its state.
People have been resisting forever.
That was fast
Everyone should just report the error to Google over and over and over again. Remind them that the federal government doesn’t actually have unilateral authority to rename major international geographic features on the whim of a single deranged despot.
Just did it.
A lot of people sent edits through to google over the Gulf of Mexico ‘change’. I believe they eventually removed the ability to edit it? (I no longer use google and it was a while ago now)
They almost instantly removed the ability to report inaccuracies right when Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico. They are all cowards.
Apple Maps still lets you report the Gulf of Mexico, I did the other night when this first happened. They haven’t changed Lake Ontario yet at least though.
