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Apple Maps retains Lake Ontario name while Google Maps adopts Lake America for US users
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Following an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America, Google Maps updated its labels based on user location while Apple Maps has so far kept the original name for all users.
Mapping platforms must decide how to handle politically driven geographic name changes, and divergent approaches create inconsistent data across services that developers and businesses rely on. Google's geo-located naming policy means the same body of water has different labels depending on where a user is, which affects any application pulling map tiles or place data from these providers. Apple's decision to hold creates a visible split that downstream users of map APIs and SDKs will encounter.
Written by elseif from the cluster below · every claim links back to a sourceThe three things worth knowing
Google Maps shows Lake America to US users, Lake Ontario to Canadian users, and Lake Ontario (Lake America) to the rest of the world.
Apple Maps currently displays Lake Ontario for all users, including those in the US.
Google's policy is to use names assigned by the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which mirrors its earlier approach to the Gulf of Mexico renaming.
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