The body of pee previously known in the U.S. as the Gulf of Mexico — and still known as that in many other parts of the world — will henceforward be tag as “ Gulf of America ” for U.S. exploiter of Apple Maps .
The jingoistic decision to rename the disconnection was made by President Donald Trump on January 20 amid a slew of executive order . However , the president ’s powers to rename geographic features are limited . He is able merely to direct federal agencies to assume the new name , while prescribed international usage lie outside his horizon , and individual and fellowship throughout the man can proceed to call the gulf whatever they care .
Under such circumstance , the proprietor of major single-valued function services may be uncertain how to continue . Apple Maps , Google Maps , MapQuest and so on have trillion of oversea users who will be baffled and dismayed by such a variety and are not bound to follow the president ’s notion when applying geographic label . At the same clip , U.S.-based corporations are understandably reluctant to alien either the governing party or the large section of the populace who voted for it .
For a U.K. viewer, Google Maps currently shows both names.
Ideally tech giants would love to stay out of political spat entirely and quash offending anyone . One approach would be to just have the names on digital maps reflect data provide by an official body : follow , for instance , the usage of theU.S. Geological Survey(USGS ) and its Geographic Names Information Service ( GNIS ) . On that basis , it was understood that Apple Maps and Google Maps would n’t exchange the name of the gulf until the GNIS did so first , which could take months .
Well , things seem to have hasten up . The GNIS has been updated to ruminate the president ’s order , and originally this week Google react bychanging the labelin Google Maps . user of the service in the U.S. now see the label “ Gulf of America , ” while users in Mexico see “ Gulf of Mexico . ” Everyone else sees the old name with the new name in angle bracket . ( If that seems like contemptible fence - sitting , do note that it is n’t unprecedented . Mapping services have long done a exchangeable reconciliation human activity for places like Taiwan . )
David Price / Foundry
For a U.K. viewer, Google Maps currently shows both names.
While MapQuest and Bing Maps have not changed the label at time of writing , Apple quickly followed Google ’s and the GNIS ’s lead and switched to the usage “ Gulf of America ” for U.S. users , as first spotted byBloomberg . reference report , however , that Cupertino is embracing the new name more in full than Google , and at some stop in the future intends to make the alteration for outside users too . For now , here in the U.K. , a search for “ Gulf of America ” takes me to the place in question but still express a recording label referencing Mexico .
An interesting wrinkle is that , while the GNIS has updated its database , the USGS mathematical function are still watch up . These still say Gulf of Mexico , albeit with a billet at the top of the page say “ Per Secretarial Order 3423 , the Gulf of Mexico has been rename to the Gulf of America . The video display mapping for the Gazetteer diligence is in the process of being update to chew over this name change . ” It seems that Google and Apple have both rushed to follow Trump ’s rules of order quicker than his own Union agencies . Or perhaps they simply have more advanced mapping scheme .
Such enthusiastic compliancy may be dissatisfactory from a company widely comprehend to embody reformist values , but nobody can be surprised . Tim Cook contributed $ 1 million of his personal fortune to Trump ’s inauguration fund and seem in several photograph as an attendee of the inauguration . He ’s not about to let ideological differences glum Apple ’s relationship with the White House and put its medical prognosis in peril , particularly when thethreat of tariffslooms over everything Apple sells . And let ’s not draw a blank , the current regime is not above takingpetty revengeon those who contradict even its smallest edicts .
