7 ms·

That "Lake America" is doing a hell of a lot of work for Google

• okdood64 1mo ago
  You mean by Judge Leonie M. Brinkema who was appointed by Clinton and has ruled against Trump policies/agenda regularly?
  • owebmaster 1mo ago
    [flagged]
• bitpush 1mo ago
  Isnt that updated by some national database and google just pulls that data? Apparently Apple Maps will also get it in a few days, since they get the data from them as well.
  • jvolkman 1mo ago
    Yes. We had the same comments about Gulf of America. Edit: I don't know that there's an actual database served up by the US Gov, but governments control the naming of these things within their own jurisdictions. All of the big mapping products have the ability to serve up different names based on where you're viewing from. And Apple just renamed: https://apnews.com/article/apple-lake-ontario-america-google-14abb66fe0ecfa05bffd42fb083dc70d https://apnews.com/article/apple-lake-ontario-america-google...
    • ericmay 1mo ago
      [flagged]
      • nancyminusone 1mo ago
        So unimportant that you just have to comment on how unimportant it is
        • ericmay 1mo ago
          It’s so unimportant folks are commenting on my comment about how unimportant it is!
    • TazeTSchnitzel 1mo ago
      https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/searc... GNIS, Geographic Names Information System (Which still shows Lake Ontario for me as I write this. The body of water along the US's southern coast is Gulf of America however.)
      • michchinn 1mo ago
        > Per Secretarial Order 3453, Lake Ontario has been renamed to Lake America. The basemaps for GNIS are in the process of being updated to reflect this name change. I see this on the top bar
      • jonas21 1mo ago
        The database entry was updated to "Lake America" on August 27: https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names/970427 https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/searc... GNIS renders their own static map tiles, so it may take a while for the update to be reflected on the map itself.
    • biophysboy 1mo ago
      It makes perfect sense that govs control names within their jurisdiction - I am eyerolling at both the name change and the reaction. I am curious though - is it convention to leave the data as is, or is it illegal to modify it? Regardless, itll just be changed back in 2 years; as long as I can type "lake ontario" and get directed to Lake Ontario, I do not care at all what the gov database calls it currently.
      • sixothree 1mo ago
        I wouldn't exactly describe one person as "the government".
        • biophysboy 1mo ago
          I mean ... currently I would? The environment will be different soon
        • ThoseWhoSquirm 1mo ago
          The president is the government as far as assigning or altering place names is concerned, but only for names not established by an act of Congress. That's why Trump was able to change the name of Denali back to Mount McKinkley; he was simply reversing an Obama-era executive order. But he couldn't rename Denali National Park because that was established by Congress.
      • watwut 1mo ago
        > I am eyerolling at both the name change and the reaction. Why do you expect meek reaction in a rename like this? What is eye rolling over reacting to this particular rename?
        • biophysboy 1mo ago
          Well, because I expect this to last for two years. Nobody likes it except for birthday boy and his sycophants. All of the signs around Lake Ontario still say the name; same goes for the people that live by it. Google should override it but I don’t expect them to, because theyre selfish and suck. Only thing to do is win elections.
    • wbl 1mo ago
      The government does not control the words you or I use to refer to things.
    • j2kun 1mo ago
      It would be nice if Maps would prefer data from government DBs that have localized versions of foreign place name data (e.g., Germany's BKG) when available.
    • bigstrat2003 1mo ago
      > governments control the naming of these things within their own jurisdictions No they don't. People can, and should, call things what they want without deference to government overreach.
      • ThoseWhoSquirm 1mo ago
        We can do that for ourselves, but it's a lot harder for the operator of a massive maps platform, based from its inception on the use of the federally controlled GNIS, to just call things what they want, or even what most of their users want things to be called. For once I'm posting about this in a forum where I can reasonably expect that most users will understand the technical difficulties that would arise if Google wanted to avoid using the new names. The average person seems to believe that Google can change the toponyms back to Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario as easily as taking down a road sign and nailing up a different one.
  • bee_rider 1mo ago
    Seems like something that should be user-configurable (like DNS servers). While the recent annoying renamings have drawn attention to the issue, landmark names have basically always been political.
  • spogbiper 1mo ago
    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/apple-maps-changes-name-lake-ontario-lake-america-2026-09-01/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/apple-maps-changes-name-lak... Apple updated it yesterday. If I were Google I'd turn down that refresh rate and let someone else take the bad PR next time
    • lotsofpulp 1mo ago
      There is no bad PR, 99% of people don’t care.
  • avs733 1mo ago
    I have been wondering this as well. I cannot imagine having this be autoupdated without review from a centralized database is a good idea. This is a process that needs to be frangible and have some friction in it. In this day and age, GPS mapping tools have major implications for societal function, safety, economics, national security, healthcare, etc. I'm struggling to think of an industry where a sudden absence/subtle changes of named GPS mapping data would not have an effect. If everyone relied on the same data base which could push changes to the map in the pocket of every resident of a nation that would be the first thing I would think to hack. Probably easier than actually jamming or spoofing GPS/GNSS over a huge area.
    • bpodgursky 1mo ago
      There are thousands of small street changes across the country each day. New subdivisions, road expansions, lane changes, new traffic lights. Of course the vast majority should be auto-updated without manual review, what would a person add to the process? The public database is the system of record in the first place.
    • GJim 1mo ago
      > GPS mapping tools You mean GPS (or rather GNSS) navigation tools. GPS != map
• strictnein 1mo ago
  The judge was appointed by Clinton, so they've been in their role for decades now. It seems unlikely that someone who has served that long in her position would rule based on making the child in the White House happy.
  • bigyabai 1mo ago
    To the contrary, the entire DOJ understands that FAANG and the three-letter-agencies are one revolving door. Any judge that attempts to defang Google's data collection may well run afoul of the American surveillance system, which this administration will fight tooth and nail to defend. Not very different from how federal protectionism keeps Apple's App Store centralized despite trillions of dollars in ostensible market damage. Anyone trying to loosen America's grip on software distribution is crossing an ugly national security line that we're all too ashamed to admit exists.
    • vasco 1mo ago
      Since you are getting no replies but getting downvoted I'm adding source from 2016 corroborating what you mention: https://www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/googles-revolving-door-us https://www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/googles-rev... 251 individuals in such detected instances just in google. And that report is 10 years old, I'd bet it's 10x that by now.
      • strictnein 1mo ago
        That makes the argument worse, not better. Google employees tens of thousands of people. The US intelligence apparatus employees hundreds of thousands of people. In all of that, over eight years, there are 251 people who moved between the two, and because of that absolute rounding error, the entire federal government is beholden to them? Since you are making the accusation that this is a real conspiracy: statistically, how many people should have rotated between these two giant employers over an 8 year span? The answer isn't zero. Also, this makes the "data" even more pointless: "between Google or related firms, and the federal government, national political campaigns and Congress during President Obama’s time in office" "were appointed to federal advisory boards." Do you know how many of those boards exist? There are tons of them. I've known a couple of people who have served on them. They're incredibly boring and deal with things like "What accessibility standards should federal government websites support?". Of course you would want people from Google on that type of board. > 251 individuals in such detected instances just in google. And that report is 10 years old, I'd bet it's 10x that by now. "Detected instances" It's so secret that I can name one of them off the top of my head: Matt Cutts. Is he part of this vast conspiracy too?
• hn_throwaway_99 1mo ago
  To all the people pissed about the "Lake America" stuff: why in the actual fuck do you want Google of all organizations to be arbiter of geographical info, instead of federal institutions that are (at least nominally) operated under democratic principles? Don't you understand the horror of what you're suggesting: "I want Google to impose it's own personal value judgments over the government's." Yes, I think it's incredibly stupid, 3rd grader childlike to call this "Lake America". But the problem is not Google, the problem is the ass hats we (collectively, even if not you/me personally) voted for. The problem is especially with our Congressional reps who have just neutered themselves in service to this stupidity. And I get it, our federal institutions have definitely showed their frailty lately, but I can't fathom then why people think the proper solution is to give more decision-making authority to Google.
  • dragontamer 1mo ago
    Yeah it's meaningless to fight. Except not really. If the powers that be are corrupt we can simply keep calling it Lake Ontario across the board, and use the difference to find who is or isn't on my side on that issue. The only people calling it Gulf of America or Lake America are hardcore MAGATs in my social circle. Even former Trump voters in my social circle are annoyed and not using the new names. So it's an effective way to figure out who is or isn't going along with the Administration today.
    • xp84 1mo ago
      > If the powers that be are corrupt we can simply keep calling it Lake Ontario This is the same logic that the right wing used when they disagreed with Obama on some issues, so they blocked his Supreme Court nominations just because anything Obama does must be bad. Sounds like your social circle is in denial. There are certainly plenty of things Trump, buffoon and graft-a-holic he is, has done that are corrupt. Renaming bodies of water doesn't look like one of them. (Obviously, because he would have renamed it after a donor, or at least after himself.) I mean, sure, we can all call anything whatever. I can call New Mexico "Best Mexico" or call Washington, DC "Bad Washington" and that's my right. But pretending that there aren't official names for things because we don't like the current guy seems immature. It's clearly within the authority of the government. Talk like this makes me think that people want to just live in a reality defined exclusively by party politics where we just pretend every law or policy made by The Bad Party doesn't exist, rather than try to win elections so we can shape the one actual reality.
• deleted 1mo ago
  [deleted]
• bradthebeaverfa 1mo ago
  As much as I love when people pretend Trump is the first government official to ever rename something, there is no evidence this had any impact on the court's decision.
• tzs 1mo ago
  They didn't do anything special for "Lake America". Google's long standing maps policy is to show people the names that their government says they have. As soon as that name showed up in the US government's database it showed up for people in the US on Google Maps. In Canada it shows up as "Lake Ontario" because that's what their government says it is. In the rest of the world it gets both names because the two governments whose territories it is in call it two different names.