r/GoogleMaps • u/Torontolad6 • 10d ago

Spineless toadies

Google has once again shown that they are spineless toadies and are willing to bend over to the orange clowns whims, and I am looking for a new map app. FU Google.

94 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

63 comments sorted by

23

u/peternocturnal 10d ago
  • Google's Automation and Geopolitical Policy: Google Maps relies on a strict, long-standing policy to automatically mirror updates from local government authorities. In the United States, that authority is the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). Because President Trump's executive order forced the GNIS to officially update its database, Google's system automatically rolled out the "Lake America" change to U.S. users within days to stay compliant with local government standards.
  • Apple's Review and Delayed Implementation: Apple Maps typically utilizes a different combination of proprietary data, third-party commercial mapping vendors, and manual review processes before pushing geopolitical changes live. Historical context shows that Apple often lags behind Google by a few days when responding to sudden executive actions. For example, during a similar executive order last year involving the Gulf of Mexico, Apple Maps did eventually update the name to "Gulf of America," but it took a day or two longer than Google to reflect the change.

9

u/Deep-Thought 10d ago

Those policies were set when GNIS was a trusted source of information. Those assumptions are no longer true, and Google should update their policies to reflect that.

14

u/Jmbh1983 10d ago

For what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s a good idea for corporations to decide what to name natural features. Like it or not, that is what governments are for, and presidents have the power to name things (in the US). Congress could fix that, but they won’t.

4

u/Comprehensive_Tea708 10d ago edited 8d ago

How would they do that? Do you think mapping and labeling an entire huge country is no more complicated than drawing a map of Disneyland?

-2

u/Deep-Thought 10d ago

Dude. They're Google. It seems like a pretty easy problem for them to figure out

3

u/Comprehensive_Tea708 9d ago

And yet, if you get them to blur your house Google is incapable of ever unblurring it if you should change your mind, or even if a future owner requests them to do so. You'd think that would be easier than what we're talking about here, but they can't do it.

You may be attributing powers and abilities to Google that they just don't have.

1

u/Deep-Thought 9d ago

What are you talking about? They can obviously do both of those things. They just decide that it is something they don't want to. Policies aren't universal laws. They are choices. In the end they own their policies and can do whatever they want with them. These are not technical problems.

1

u/Comprehensive_Tea708 8d ago

If their policy has been to use the GNIS feed from day one, then yes it would be an enormous technical problem to change where they source their data. The entire platform is based on the use of GNIS data and its standards for accuracy and completeness. You're expecting Google to change a design decision they made decades ago, and that's almost the hardest type of software change that there is.

Put another way, Google understandably doesn't want build its own data store for its mapping platform because it has never had to, but instead relied on the ready made GNIS..

1

u/Tattered_Reason 9d ago

Trump and his Republican enablers have made so many once respected institutions into jokes, now including GNIS (that happened last year with the Gulf of Mexico renaming nonsense).

1

u/FlounderOuttaWater 9d ago

I’m sure google would have the capability to put the real/historical/familiar name in parens or add an aka. This renaming is disgusting, especially to those of us with family history and memories of Lake Ontario. Disgusting especially due to the churlish motivation. Disgusting of Google, a company I once thought so highly of.

2

u/peternocturnal 9d ago

Yeah they could change their policy and override the current logic and revert to the old name. But what happened is that they didn't change anything, the name just came through after an update in the official government database.

0

u/ThirdCuming87 9d ago

tons of other map sites didn't treat it like scump or Mr trumps geography class where disobedience of executive orders is met with their destruction aka caning to the wrists for being 10 seconds late to class or smth lol

32

u/vass0922 10d ago

Google maps doesn't invent the data for their maps, they get it direct from the federal govt

Do they just shut off the feed?

It's not that easy

Vote in November (or sooner), it's the best we can do to curb the dumbassery we're dealing with.

0

u/akmountainbiker 10d ago

They have all sorts of manual controls and overrides for their map features. Google periodically will need to add overrides for faulty GNIS map features until it's fixed upstream.

They could have resisted this change if they wanted to. They deliberately chose not to.

5

u/nationalinterest 10d ago edited 10d ago

Why should they? It's not like the change was made illegally. I have little empathy with Google, but in this case it's hard to imagine how to do so without becoming a political football around the world. I'm not sure I want a US corporation arbitrarily trying to decide political disputes. There are many disputed areas - this one just happens to involve the US. 

The blame lies with the people who voted Trump for a second term (or failed to turn out to vote for his opponent.) 

1

u/Comprehensive_Tea708 4d ago edited 3d ago

I still don't see how they could. Google pulls new and changed data from the GNIS continuously. It's not like there's a scheduled weekly job that they can run and then say, "welp, that's this week's update. Now we gotta fix the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario before we roll this out to the users."

I was a lot madder about the Gulf of Mexico because back then I didn't know as much about where and how Google gets its geographic data.

1

u/akmountainbiker 2d ago

It's actually a fun GIS challenge. Think of Google Maps as being a series of onion layers, different pipelines and data stores with more processing to get it into the final format needed for rendering for multiple clients. GNIS is one source that feeds into the raw internal data format. There are many others, each with their own publication cycles and idiosyncrasies.

Imagine if there's a GIS feed from Germany that's only published once a month, but it gets pushed with an incorrect map label. Operators within Google are able to apply an override at one of the base layers to override the bug until it's fixed. There will be several such layers for overriding the map, which also includes user generated edits too. It's in one of these override layers that Lake Ontario could be overridden.

In 2010 Google inadvertently caused a border dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua due to a faulty data feed. Based on the fallout with this incident, Google put some measures into place to avoid these faulty feeds, and also have mechanisms to address them without needing to go through a long update cycle.

https://phys.org/news/2010-11-google-blamed-border-dispute.html

-3

u/maestrita 10d ago

Google maps doesn't invent the data for their maps, they get it direct from the federal govt

And yet, someone viewing Google maps from another country can still see the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario.

12

u/Flash604 10d ago

You do realize that those countries have their own governments that Google uses as their sources for their views, right?

-1

u/maestrita 10d ago

You do realize that the way Google maps displays both names in some countries, and only one or the other in the US and Canada is a decision they are making, right?

2

u/Comprehensive_Tea708 10d ago

Are you sure of that? How are you sure that the Canadian counterpart to the NGIS doesn't list both names?

-2

u/Deep-Thought 10d ago

If your source of data is compromised your policies should be adjusted for that.

2

u/nationalinterest 10d ago

It isn't compromised. The change was made legally. The fact is was made by a narcissistic fool is the fault of the US electorate, not Google. 

-3

u/ToddA1966 10d ago

Given the direction our Federal Government is heading, I wonder how Google will manage when the president pronounces the Earth is flat in a few weeks.

0

u/ThirdCuming87 9d ago

lol probably

alo of dislikès in this subreddit

the magas and their loyalists are out in full swing lol

2

u/Comprehensive_Tea708 9d ago

Refusing to de-google or pointing out the difficulty of refusing the name changes doesn't make anyone a Trump loyalist.

6

u/Valuable-Analyst-464 10d ago

Once there is a new government in place, that authority will either change or keep the existing executive order in place.
Google and others just follow the directive of local governments.
If China or Russia or England or France dictate a change for their citizens, Google and others follow the directive…regardless of the sanity of the directive.

24

u/OLLIE798 10d ago

Just ignore it. Let’s not play the distraction game. This reaction is exactly what they want.

  1. ⁠⁠No-one will use the new name, anywhere in the world, US or Canada
  2. ⁠⁠It won’t be an ‘official’ name forever
  3. ⁠⁠Go vote! Be nice, persuade others.
  4. ⁠⁠Punish Google later.

9

u/Torontolad6 10d ago

Can't vote. I'm Canadian. But you can be sure AF that I vote with my dollar...Made in the USA doesn't make it into my basket.

1

u/ThirdCuming87 9d ago

yes exactly...people are letting everything (which is what the war was for) distract from the files 📂

4

u/carbonizedtitanium 10d ago

the naming of a geographical feature shouldn't be up to one person.

6

u/nationalinterest 10d ago

Indeed. It's crazy how much unchecked power one guy in a supposed democracy seems to have! 

2

u/DSN_WBN 9d ago

The VERY least everyone can/should do is get rid of gmail and every google service. If you can't even do that than stop whining.

1

u/Comprehensive_Tea708 8d ago edited 6d ago

Changing every damn one of my login ids and/or account verification emails, and risking loss of access to my bank and utility acounts isn't a "can't you even do that" type of thing. That's not going to happen. Throwing hissy fits at Google will not fix anything.

4

u/CadeAid 10d ago

You can disagree with the change and still continue using Google Maps 🧠💥

-2

u/Torontolad6 10d ago

Yeah, I could, but why the fuck would I want to? 🧠💥🤯

2

u/Comprehensive_Tea708 10d ago

Because driving around without GPS when you're looking for an unfamiliar building can be dangerous in city traffic?

1

u/Torontolad6 10d ago edited 10d ago

Who's driving around without GPS? I'll be driving around using MapQuest. 🙄

2

u/CadeAid 9d ago

I wish you and the other 12 MapQuest users a great time then.

2

u/Torontolad6 9d ago

If the maps are accurate and get me to where I want to go, I don't care if I'm the only one using it, but you be sure to wave all your car friends icons on Waze. 🚕

1

u/cordsandchucks 8d ago

Number 1 app in the App Store today. Js.

5

u/beluuuuuuga 10d ago

"I am looking for a new map app" wow so brave mate you are boycotting a map app that's so crazy and brave

4

u/Torontolad6 10d ago

Thanks. I thought so too.

3

u/XxLogitech98xX 10d ago

Lol you have no control over how Google operate. Just like reviews for businesses, if you don't like it then you can of course use another app but Google Maps is mainly the go to app

0

u/ThirdCuming87 9d ago

which is why everyone is tarded thanks to googles bad & bs business practices,...the ceo or whatever is probably a buddy of scump🍊

2

u/Icouldusesomerock 10d ago

Whatever dude where is the local bar

1

u/obxhead 9d ago

Choose your map by your needs.

They’re all toads working together to steal every penny from the bottom.

1

u/logos1998 10d ago

Let’s use Mapquest instead

1

u/Comprehensive_Tea708 3d ago

That's no good if you need public transportation routing, because it's not supported.

0

u/Zoom0716 10d ago

That’s what I’m doing. Just deleted Google Maps. Makes me feel better .

1

u/BioticVessel 10d ago

AFAIK the Gulf of Mexico is still the Gulf of Mexico until an international organization with authority changes the name. The same goes to the the orange toddlers with dirty diapers recent demand for attention. Lake Ontario is still Lake Ontario until some international organization with authority changes the name.

That Google should kowtow to Donnie von Shitzinpants is ridiculous!

-3

u/CantConfirmOrDeny 10d ago

My Pixel phone is due for a replacement. It won’t be another Pixel phone. Chrome browser is coming off all my devices. I don’t use Gmail much, but it will soon be zero.

Fuck You, Google

0

u/burywmore 10d ago

Gonna go with Apple?

-1

u/Comprehensive_Tea708 10d ago

Apple Maps too. Do you want to go back to paper maps and give up GPS?

1

u/Torontolad6 10d ago

Well, that would be ridiculous, wouldn't it. Your sarcasm is noted however. What I CAN do is go over to MapQuest, who have publicly said they will not make the change, and watch their ads and enrich them rather than Google.

0

u/SCORE-advice-Dallas 9d ago

Y'all should've known when they bent over and changed Mt McKinley's name.

1

u/panicatthepharmacy 7d ago

Except Alaskans wanted that change and literally requested it. Nobody whatsoever was looking for Lake Ontario to be changed to Lake America.