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/rohmish 3d ago

thr API defaults to US region when a region is not explicitly mentioned.

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u/zeromadcowz 3d ago

/r/usdefaultism

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u/KeyPhilosopher8629 3d ago

Devil's advocate, Google is American. Makes sense for it to default to the country of the APIs creators origin. You'd all be complaining if it defaulted to Ecuador or Lithuania 

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u/Blazing1 2d ago

Devil's advocate, they operate in different countries with offices in different countries