Google has explained that it will update its cards to change the “Gulf of Mexico” in the “Gulf of America” for people who use the search engine in the USA as soon as the federal government updates its own official sources.
The Tech -Riese promised to make a similar change for the highest summit in North America and to use the name for Mount Denali in Alaska back to Mount McKinley. The news on Monday evening became a topic of conversation from an unbelieving late night talk show to forums for confused volunteers.
“Well, that is an entertaining development,” wrote a mapping community presenter and linked an article about Google’s decision.
The change partly attracted attention because after a clear signal by an American president, they quickly came, while name changes are usually a long bureaucratic process – but it is not the first time that Google Maps on the place names and the global limits for different users Various places have changed especially during geopolitical disputes.
Geographers say that the move from the United States reminds this week that place names can have a real political weight.
“Most of the time, people don’t pay attention to labels. They are always there,” said Matthew Zook, professor of geography at the University of Kentucky. “This is just a moment when we can really see how cards and how labels are mighty things.”
Place names changes worldwide
The Interior Department of the Trump government said last Friday that it officially changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and Mount Denali to Mount McKinley.
Google says that it will change the place name in Google Maps as soon as the titles in the system of US geographical names are officially updated.
People in the United States will see “Gulf of America” while the people in Mexico will still see the old name. All others, including people in Canada, will reflect both names.
The company has made similar locations over the years, depending on where they are:
- India and Pakistan have been fighting for the mountainous region of Kashmir for decades. People in India looking for the Himalaya outpost on Google Maps see a solid circular border that describes the area as Indian control. Elsewhere, users see a dotted line that reflects the dispute.
- Similarly, Argentina and the United Kingdom have been discussing ownership of the Falkland Islands since 1982. Most users looking for the archipelago on Google Maps I see the Spanish name.
- The water between Japan and the Korean Peninsula is widely known as the sea of Japan, but is listed as The Baltic Sea On the South Korean version of Google Maps.
- The waterway that separates Iran and Saudi Arabia appears depending on where they are.
Geographers also pointed out the various spellings for the capital of Ukraine. It is either Kyiv in harmony with the Ukranian spelling or Kiev, as it is written in Russia.
“Whenever you start to change many names for places in history, this often signals important political changes or power struggles in society,” said Reuben Redwood-Rose, Dean of the Geography Department at the University of Victoria.
Google Maps is the dominant force in the online mapping area, both in terms of size and influence. Since its introduction in 2005, the program has changed how billions of people in hundreds of countries in their daily life navigate from the planning of their commuting times until the selection of a place for dinner.
According to an estimate by Morgan Stanley, the program was ready to bring in 11 billion US dollars in 2023.
The former first lady and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton laughed when US President Donald Trump announced in his opening speech that he would rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
ZOOK says that this time Google could be seen as an arrangement of the US president. But he also says that in the past, name changes were carried out with regard to the cash flow.
“Ultimately, advertising pays the bills for Google,” said Zook in an interview on Tuesday. “Everything that would possibly cause problems, the product is not used by every place, you will try to avoid – you basically try to meet the wishes and preferences of the population that they serve.”
The technology company donated us to the opening fund for US President Donald Trump together with other companies such as Amazon and Meta.
CEO Sundar Pichai took part in the inauguration on January 20, as well as X and Tesla owner Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos from Amazon and Mark Zuckerberg from Meta.
Disputes can take decades
The name debate over the highest summit in North America Has been back and forth for a century. It alternated from McKinley to the former US President William McKinley to “Denali”, a koyukon-language word that reflects the sheer height of the summit.
The Obama government recently restored the name Denali in 2015, a change that was reflected from Google Maps within days.
Alaska’s legislators said they want to keep the name Denali.
The Republican Senator of Alaska, Dan Sullivan, said last week that his preference was given the big mountain for thousands of years ago for “the name of the patriotic, strong Athabascan -Denali. We will continue the discussions with the Trump government. “
The Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum jokingly proposed at the beginning of this month, North America in “Mexican America”, a name used on an early map in the region.
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Other countries do not have to match name changes in the USA. Redwood-Rose, the geography professor at the University of Victoria, says that the cardendranche should not hurry to make a change that may not be liable.
“Trump’s age will not take forever,” he said.
“I would encourage companies and championship cartographers to think critically about how they create cards and whether they only agree with political currents of the day or not.”
