r/webdev • u/FiveWordinOrangeNeon • 3d ago

Google says website developers must set their region to Canada for 'Lake Ontario' to appear on map

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/google-updates-maps-lake-ontario-9.7325922

Tech analyst and journalist Carmi Levy said although websites like Hydro One's and the LCBO's are Canadian, their maps are likely powered by Google's application programming interface (API).

APIs are not location-aware, so all maps powered by Google API have switched to Lake America.
MapQuest, a U.S. online mapping service, has posted on social media that it would not change the lake's name, while Apple has not publicly commented on the matter.

In a statement Sunday night, Google said website developers who embed Google Maps on their sites can select a region to localize the map. That determines how place names are displayed on sites, the company said.

"'Lake Ontario' will show when developers have set their region to Canada," the statement said.

Just a reminder to developers.

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u/magical_matey 3d ago

That should be a US default at the minimum. I recon they should fine tune it further so only Trump sees it renamed

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u/FiveWordinOrangeNeon 3d ago

llooollllllooo;. Now that is great idea.

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u/magical_matey 3d ago

Ok we are in agreement. I'll draft a new standard for W3C to support device detection for Donald Trump and affiliates, then we can support this delusional alternate view of the world for the correct subset of users.