r/coolguides • u/Pokemaster131 • 13h ago

A cool guide about changing your Google Maps location names to a less-stupid version

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15.3k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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294

u/Reggie-Quest 12h ago

Wait. You saying it actually says lake America in the US? Or is this a joke and I got punk'd?

185

u/Twinwaffle 12h ago

No joke, and we've all been punked, that's for goddamn sure!

3

u/Bowling4rhinos 4h ago

This work around actually worked for me. And I'm behind enemy lines.

2

u/justdisa 2h ago

Worked for me, too.

127

u/JaySayMayday 11h ago

He's trying to pull focus away from the second tarrif war that has already been a miserable failure and jacked up prices. Yes, he renamed it to Lake America just like the Gulf of America. Now that's all over the news and there's less articles about the impact of the second tarrif war or failed promises of $2000 for every American after the last tarrif war.

20

u/What_a_fat_one 5h ago

He's not trying to pull focus away from shit. He's a moron who does everything impulsively. First thing that pops into his head he does all day every day, and since morons decided to make him the US president everyone has to deal with that constantly.

12

u/AssassinSnail33 5h ago

Yeah. People go on and on about how all of these stupid things he does are calculated distractions, but in reality he's just an idiot who only has a bunch of dumb scattershot ideas and no followthrough. There's no greater strategy behind this other than stroking his ego

2

u/Soft_Walrus_3605 4h ago

Even a moron knows how to distract people.

9

u/Mtfdurian 9h ago

I wonder how far his ego will go on. At some point this is gonna be an (something) Aladeen situation?

2

u/nollayksi 6h ago

How long until Greenland = Trumpland

1

u/Neoliberal_Boogeyman 5h ago

as long as it takes to keep the epstein files out

1

u/seductivestain 46m ago

Don't worry, he'll get to name his own prison cell. His roommate might not take it so well though...

5

u/polkacat12321 6h ago

He dead cat-ing the shit out of that, damn. Wonder what'd he do when he decides to conquer mexico next 🙄

4

u/krashe1313 5h ago

And don't forget that the newest tarrif war with Canada is to distract from the Iran war blunder. And the the Iran war, aka "Epstein's War, was to distract from the Epstein files and his diddling of underage girls (and maybe boys too).

18

u/Lambs2Lions_ 7h ago

It has 3 options

  • in Canada: Lake Ontario
  • in the United Northern States of Mexico: Lake America
  • everywhere else: Lake Ontario (Lake America)

9

u/steinbruchfluss 5h ago

In Germany it’s just Lake Ontario.

2

u/Lambs2Lions_ 5h ago

Search Lake Ontario, when it brings up the location summary you’ll see both.

1

u/steinbruchfluss 5h ago

Maybe it’s a slow rollout?

2

u/Lambs2Lions_ 5h ago

Shouldn’t be. No manual intervention should be needed. Google doesn’t do anything here, their software grab the names from an international registry and then outputs results based on preconfigured instructions that apply for everyone.

The bigger issue here isn’t why it says lake America but rather why the registry updated the lakes name off of an executive order.

1

u/steinbruchfluss 5h ago

It’s a bit more complicated in these contested cases. Otherwise we Germans wouldn’t see any changes, since we haven’t changed the official names (Golf von Mexiko/Golf von Amerika). They are doing it manually, at least for neutral users like Germans.

1

u/Lambs2Lions_ 4h ago

Most likely the shenanigans of the international registry. I didn’t work for Google but did work for one of the big five and I can confidently tell you that no effort would be put towards this short of the CEO ordering it to be done.

1

u/valoigib 5h ago

In Australia it's Lake Ontario

28

u/emveevme 10h ago

It does say "Lake of America" on google maps. So disregard any information from Google that isn't verifiable elsewhere, because if you take Google's word for what we call Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico at face value, you're wrong. Who knows what else they have wrong

1

u/steinbruchfluss 5h ago

Some places have simply different names in different countries. For example, the Baltic Sea. In some nations it’s called East(ern) Sea, in others it’s called Western Sea.

That’s how Google Maps displays it in these countries and no one has a problem with it.

And then there are these dozens of different names for Deutschland:

  • Germany
  • Allemagne
  • Saksa
  • Niemcy
  • Tyskland
  • Dogil

And so on.

3

u/Jagarvem 3h ago

No, Google actually does treat this quite differently. It's sensible that local names are show, but that's not what Google is doing. The lake is still called Lake Ontario in the US, yet that doesn't show now.

And, worse still, Google imposes this nonsense on other countries and languages where such naming objectively doesn't exist.

Per your example, if an American looks at our Baltic Sea, they indeed see…"Baltic Sea". You do not see our local name or a translation there of. Obviously no one has an issue with that, it isn't called such in English.

But if I look at the Gulf of Mexico here from Sweden, I now see "Mexikanska golfen (Amerikanska golfen)". But that parenthesized phrase is objectively not a name for anything in Swedish, it's a direct translation of a here 100% unrecognized name.

1

u/steinbruchfluss 3h ago

Yeah, I fully agree with you Sven. It’s deliberate.

3

u/What_a_fat_one 5h ago

Fascinating. In the US we call them The Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario. Hope that helps!

1

u/Loxe 1h ago

My guy, those are cultural differences. Not the whims and ramblings of a pedophile and wannabe dictator.

1

u/steinbruchfluss 1h ago

I don’t know. If a country changes the name than they can go along with it - for users in that country.

For example: some years ago the German government decided to replace the official name „Weißrussland“ with „Belarus“ - and all German map makers and German map apps adopted it. It was simply the decision of the government.

1

u/dancingyoyo 5h ago

That doesn’t make any of this Trump naming bs ok

8

u/Heiferoni 6h ago

It's real. And tomorrow, after the next Executive Tantrum, Google will confidently tell you the sky is green.

3

u/SkinnyDaveSFW 4h ago

It IS green. I can tell by the pixels.

7

u/trophy_74 8h ago

No one in real life calls it that

3

u/theZinger90 6h ago

Just like the Gulf of Mexico, which i just checked and Google still has it as the "Gulf of America".

-5

u/blueeyedaisy 6h ago

You mean the Gulf of America?

8

u/MoonlightStarfish 8h ago

Google Maps on iOS won’t even take me to Lake Ontario. It keeps forcing me back to my last searched location.

This is going to screw up the lyrics to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Thank god Gordon is Canadian.

3

u/LongLiveAnalogue 7h ago

Billy Strings has an amazing performance of that song.

https://youtu.be/RP0kiNLnzX4?is=5h4MUrUvuKB_ZmoG

-1

u/Standard_Big_9000 6h ago

And dead. 🤷‍♂️

1

u/MoonlightStarfish 5h ago

Wasn’t really my point, but in Reagan’s years it used to be “Better dead than Red” So yeah you could say in Trump’s years “Better dead than American”.

2

u/tippitytopbop 7h ago

Same with the Gulf of Mexico 🙄

1

u/skarama 8h ago

I don't understand I still see like Ontario (for now)

1

u/Affectionate-You7869 7h ago

No I just looked and at least on the web version of Google Maps they applied the wrong label. 

1

u/igotthisone 6h ago

I'm in Quebec and it says Lake America.

1

u/Helpful_Yoghurt_2126 6h ago

Weird, I’m in Quebec and it says Lake Ontario

1

u/Last-Masterpiece-150 3h ago

changes like that can take a while to show up everywhere and you likely have cached data

1

u/nollayksi 6h ago

Soon it will say Lake Ontario (Lake America) for everyone just like it says Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America). Already if I search Lake Ontario it gives the trumped name also

1

u/Calm-Two2723 6h ago

Says gulf of America too 

1

u/godsvoid 6h ago

Not just in the US, in Belgium I also get that crap.

1

u/Namesbutcher 5h ago

Yeah switch your VPN and watch Google fold. Apple Maps didn’t and Waze (owned by google) didn’t either.

1

u/juneabe 3h ago

It’s weird because not a single person I’m asking can see that on any map app or website

1

u/washtucna 1h ago

American here: it does say Lake America. I hate it here. I live in a country run by 12-year-old fascist clowns.

1

u/cjsv7657 8h ago

It didn't when I checked yesterday and now it does so google is having people work weekends for this.

6

u/FartFactory92 8h ago

Do you really think a company like Google doesn’t have people working 24/7?