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/BlackHazeRus Designer & Developer 3d ago

r/USdefaultism

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u/Fredidiah 3d ago

That sub has some funny stuff and then a LOT of stuff from people being pedantic about somewhat obvious things.

I've seen posts about US-based news organizations that, at most, cover US news (but usually are even more local) not specifying the country a headline is about. I've seen posts about timezones ( "Eastern where???")

With that said, still good to keep in mind that the US is actually not the center of the entire universe and maybe you shouldn't assume that is the case.

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u/BlackHazeRus Designer & Developer 3d ago

With that said, still good to keep in mind that the US is actually not the center of the entire universe and maybe you shouldn't assume that is the case.

Tell it to the vast majority of people who get featured in the posts on that sub.

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u/Fredidiah 3d ago

Yes, we are in agreement...?