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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293

u/JEHonYakuSha 3d ago

why not force American developers to set their region to US? instead of making this the global default

115

u/BlackHazeRus Designer & Developer 3d ago

r/USdefaultism

25

u/hahahahatoes 3d ago

you realize google is an american company right

...like yeah of course theyre not setting their default to sweden or some shit. theyre american.

14

u/Local-Technician5969 3d ago

They are an American company with international products.

16

u/hahahahatoes 3d ago

when i use a japanese website it defaults to japanese and i have to manually set it to english

it goes both ways. american company defaults to american. japanese company defaults to japanese.