Google Maps now shows ‘Gulf of America’ for US customers after Trump’s govt order
Google Maps has modified the identify of the Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America’ for customers within the US, following an govt order signed by US President Donald Trump final month geared toward honoring “American Greatness.”
On January 20, his first day in workplace, Trump formally ordered that the gulf be renamed, citing its significance to the US, and likewise ordered that Denali, North America’s tallest peak, be given its former identify, Mount McKinley – in honor of the twenty fifth president, William McKinley.
Google beforehand defined that it has a “longstanding apply of making use of identify modifications after they have been up to date in official authorities sources.”
In a weblog publish on Monday, the tech large introduced that after the US Geographic Names Data System (GNIS) formally modified ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to ‘Gulf of America’, it is going to comply with swimsuit and replace Google Maps to mirror this modification.
Whereas customers within the US will now see ‘Gulf of America’, in Mexico, Google will proceed to confer with it as ‘Gulf of Mexico’. Customers in different nations will see each names: ‘Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)’. The corporate defined that it determines the identify primarily based on consumer location settings.
This strategy is just like different disputed or variably named geographic options, such because the physique of water between Japan and Korea, labeled as ‘Sea of Japan (East Sea)’ in some worldwide contexts.
The renaming of the gulf has, nevertheless, been met with pushback. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has stated Mexico and the worldwide group will proceed to confer with the physique of water because the Gulf of Mexico, insisting that the US “can not unilaterally change the identify of a global physique of water” which had been acknowledged “for hundreds of years.”
The gulf, which is linked to the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, stretches alongside the jap coast of Mexico, the southeastern coast of the US, and the western fringe of Cuba. The identify Gulf of Mexico has been utilized by European explorers and mapmakers for over 400 years.
The renaming has additionally been met with pushback in nations such because the UK and Canada, each of which have vowed to proceed utilizing the unique identify.
Whereas the Gulf’s identify change has been carried out on Google Maps, the renaming of Denali continues to face opposition and has not but been mirrored on the platform. Final week, the Alaska Legislature handed a decision urging Trump to retain the identify Denali, highlighting its cultural significance to Alaska natives. The decision famous that the identify, which means ‘the excessive one’, has been used for hundreds of years and holds deep historic significance.
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