this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025

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295

Google officially changes the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Maps (www.usatoday.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 hours ago

Next president, assuming there is one, will just change it back to repair relations with our allies.

Even if it never gets changed back, it'll be a generation before people actually start calling it that. No one alive now is going to give a fuck about the Gulf of America or call it that.

Hey conservatives, not that you're intelligent enough to figure out how to get on Lemmy, but if by some miracle one of you reads this, why is Trump doing this and floating invading our allies and annexing their territories instead of lowering the price of groceries as promised on day 1?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 10 hours ago

This whole thing is extremely cringe. There isn’t any other way to put it. Trump. His executive order. The compliance. It’s all cringe.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

Cancun Texas! Have you guys been? Its beautiful! Just a short flight across the golf of America and located in southflorida...Flucatan.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Interesting discussion about this on the OpenStreetMap forums.

The resolution is introducing "official_name" tags, referencing "en_us", because "en" is not just the U.S.:

https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/gulf-of-america-gulf-of-mexico/124571/11

So when OsmAnd or OrganicMaps start to support them, maybe your locale settings will change the displayed name there as well.

Current description of that node: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/305639190/history/80

So maybe that could be a reason for everyone around the world to stop using en_US locale settings. XD

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago

Google can officially gargle deez nutz

[–] [email protected] 36 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

Time for a repeat comment: Organic Maps does everything Google Maps does (except traffic conditions), and is FOSS. Please encourage places to contribute business information to Open Street Maps.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

I'm all for swapping apps, but Organic Maps doesn't even have my home address. And I live in a major metropolitan area.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Add it to OSM?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

That solves the problem this time, but it doesn't help if I'm trying to navigate somewhere new.

If it doesn't have the address for a 30-year-old house in a major metropolitan area, then I just don't think it's a viable replacement for Google Maps, unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Every time I try to navigate to an address that's missing in OSM, I just navigate to the nearest one instead. It's not a big deal.
And when I have 5 minutes of free time, I add the address.

That's how OSM works. There isn't a dev or company to blame, you can literally fix the missing data yourself. And that's the only way it works.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I wish OSM had the resources to make something akin to Pokemon Go but instead of capturing something, it adds it to the database.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

You are in luck my friend: https://streetcomplete.app/

They have made it super easy and fun. I have been playing it for nearly a year and have made a pretty big dent in my local dense metro area.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

oh yay!!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

My test search for the UPS store up the street sent me 4km away. So...not great.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 13 hours ago

Just swapped apps. Thanks for the suggestion!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Would be shame if google are snowed under with reports the name is wrong :-)

[–] Darkassassin07 3 points 7 hours ago

Just tried: the 'report an issue'/'suggest an edit' button doesn't appear when The Gulf of Mexico is selected.

It does for other locations, but not for the Gulf.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 hours ago

Genuinely curious... How does Google handle other oceanic naming that isn't agreed upon Worldwide?

Google Maps view of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica

[–] [email protected] 23 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (6 children)

Also, report an error to google maps:

It reads: I read "Gulf of America". That must be a mistake.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

I can't seem to do this from the phone app

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 12 hours ago

bing still shows correctly for me.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

I'm currently in France, this is what I see on Google maps Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)

What a f*cking joke 😂

Maps.me shows the real name

As does mappy.cz

[–] kent_eh 4 points 11 hours ago

I'm in Canada, and Google maps shows me the same as what you are seeing.

[–] ramjambamalam 63 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

That's a weird flex by South Canada.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 16 hours ago

I’m in the process of migrating my saved locations and addresses to Organic Maps. Bye Google.

[–] [email protected] 94 points 23 hours ago (5 children)

What a great time to download Organic maps

[–] [email protected] 8 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

How does it compare to OsmAnd?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Organic Maps has fewer features and settings, a more stripped-down user interface, and concentrates on what most people use the most (find an address, navigate to it).
It is also much, much faster than OsmAnd.
Personally, I find OsmAnd too slow and clunky, and Organic Maps a bit too basic.
But I prefer Organic Maps 95% of the time.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 15 hours ago

Also a great choice. I prefer organic maps for a variety of reasons (like ability to contribute to the maps), but a lot of people prefer OsmAnd. They are both very good.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 15 hours ago

UNITED STATES OF NORTH MEXICO
I'm gonna start creating new pubs, bars and so on, everywhere I go, and call them Trump's Mexican Deli, Donnie & Elon's vacancy hotel, and so on. Please contribute (use an alternative google account)

[–] [email protected] 47 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Bingo.

Imagine getting every "alpha male" 2A nutjob violent conservative to realize who their actual enemy is.

We'd get some actual positive change in an extremely short period of time.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 17 hours ago

Cool.

In not at all related news disabling Google maps on your Android device can often be a source of delight! I never knew how capable organic maps was and it has a very nice auto integration.

[–] ramjambamalam 34 points 21 hours ago (4 children)

The change reflects Google's policy of adhering to official government names for geographical locations.

OK, so why am I seeing Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America) from Canada?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Same here in Europe.

This is highly irregular for several reasons:

Google adheres to official government positions, yes, but as far as I'm aware the American government hasn't made the name change official yet. Members of the government have said that they'd do this, but I don't think this idea has passed any process yet. So then why is Google "updated" their maps?

When Google adheres to official government positions, they are local. In example, when you're in China and look up Taiwan, it'll appear as part of China. In other countries it'll appear as either an independent country or a disputed territory, depending on that government's official position on the matter. What we DON'T see is something like "Taiwan (China)", as Google supposedly has no intention on forcing the policies of one government upon another government, and as far as I'm aware the rest of the world hasn't agreed to changing The Gulf of Mexico to The Gulf of America.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 16 hours ago

If anyone's interested, here's what it looks like in Europe. The good news: this is the first time I've had to use Google Maps in a loooong time (ignoring embedded maps in other sites). OpenStreetMap is wonderful and there are some superb apps powered by it, including the ever-excellent Organic Maps.

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[–] Punchshark 78 points 1 day ago (3 children)

What a bunch of cucks! The billionaires have fully taken over!

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

What the fuck is this shit?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

A born rich low IQ loser jerking himself off while we're all forced to watch, courtesy of the average low IQ American voter.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Expect in the near future:

Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America) (Gulf of CUM)

Greenland (New Alaska) (New Siberia)

Gaza Strip (New Houston)

Falkland Islands (Las Islas Españolas) (Les Îles Napoléon)

Antarctica (American Liberty Glacier)

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