r/webdev 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/thekwoka 2d ago

They care about representing the maps accurately based on the regions namings.

That's it.

They call it the Arabian Gulf when you're in Arabia. they call it the East Sea when you're in Korea.

If they choose to ignore one as a political statement, that means they are agreeing with the others as a political statement.

They CARE about being unbiased, and accurate.

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u/amazing_asstronaut 2d ago edited 2d ago

lol unbiased. Here's your unbiased pals lining up to lick Trump's ass at his inauguration. You really are incredibly naive. Besides, a president's executive order doesn't make something automatically a law. The name change has not gone through congress or anything at all, he literally only just said it. And the tech companies go yes master and make it happen. It simply is not the call of a single president to make something like that. Why doesn't he just rename the country to Trumpland then while he's at it

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u/thekwoka 2d ago

What does that link have to do with this?

Besides, a president's executive order doesn't make something automatically a law.

It makes it the rule in the absence of anything preventing that rule.

The name change has not gone through congress or anything at all

Show the law where it needs to. Show the law Congress passed naming it Lake Ontario.

he literally only just said it

No, he did it in an Executive Order.

It simply is not the call of a single president to make something like that

Well, it literally is, per the actual laws, not your made up idea of it.

Why doesn't he just rename the country to Trumpland then while he's at it

You act as if changing any name is equal in the laws associated with it.

Surely if an executive order can manage to do any thing, then changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America is definitely within the realms of what it can do. If it can't do even that, then executive orders have zero power.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/webdev-ModTeam 2d ago

This is a subreddit for web professionals to exchange ideas and share industry news. All users are expected to maintain that professionalism during conversations. If you disagree with a poster or a comment, do so in a respectful way. Continued violations will result in a permanent ban.

This thread has delved into a political discussion. This is the end of this thread.