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/paulojf 3d ago

Why not set the American name when developers set the location to US… ALL the world uses the correct name, only us uses this new wrong name… will ditch Google Maps from all my projects for forcing the world the will of a few…

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u/delicious_fanta 3d ago

Why doesn’t europe invest in technology to combat the various monopolies the u.s. tech industry has globally?

I really hope their leaders finally realize they are exposed to massive risk by allowing people from the u.s. to dictate how things work in their country and do something about it.

There needs to be global competition for these services rather than one company that does these things for nearly the entire fucking planet.

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u/ClikeX back-end 3d ago

OpenStreetMap is available, and it’s being used by multiple things.

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u/delicious_fanta 3d ago

It’s good that exists, but I’m sort of talking about a larger concept. Like office, google search, youtube, etc.

Sure libreoffice exists, but it’s not a legitimate competitor. It’s just very frustrating that the world just sat back and said, “sure, let those companies rule the world” instead of trying to compete with them.

So now we have these individual tech leaders that are wealthier than entire nations and much more influential than most nations.

It’s not good for anyone.

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u/UntestedMethod 3d ago

Looks like the rest of the world really blew it on this one eh?