The Digital Mapmakers Are Falling in Line ⇥ bloomberg.com

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is renaming the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America on its Maps app, following an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump on his first day in office.

[…]

Apple is making the change Tuesday for customers in the US, but said it would soon roll out the shift for all users globally. Apple offers its Maps app on most of its devices, including the iPhone, iPad and Mac, and recently launched a web version to better compete with Google Maps.

In the United States, Google Maps labels it “Gulf of America”; in nearly every other region, it is shown as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)”. However, in Mexico, it is displayed as “Gulf of Mexico” only. So far, Bing and MapQuest have not updated their maps, as Gurman writes. Neither has Mapbox. OpenStreetMap is currently displaying “Gulf of Mexico” everywhere but in the U.S., but that has been a contentious choice.

All of these digital map distributors have choices. The best choice, given the circumstances, is to display “Gulf of America” only in the U.S. and, I suppose, in any other country pledging loyalty to this jingoistic change. Google’s decision seems like an acceptable alternative, and it is what I hope Gurman means in reporting the change will be seen by “all users globally”. (Update: I like Steve Jamieson’s suggestion to “localize it [in the U.S.] as ‘Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico)'”. Then, everywhere else, reversing the order or dropping the “Gulf of America” part makes sense. But I fear a compromise is not what this president has in mind, and it will put any company that attempts this at risk of being singled out.)

I do not think it makes sense to be mad at mapmakers updating their labels to correctly reflect official naming changes, nor do I think it is helpful to file bug reports against the name. I do think people should continue mocking the stupidity of this renaming as it is a minor symptom of a nationalistic verve.

By the way, the big mountain in Alaska is still showing as “Denali”, even in U.S. Google Maps. The National Parks Service has fully removed its page on the history of the mountain’s name; it simply redirects to a page that makes no mention of it. Is it good when a country is desperately burying its history? Asking for a neighbour.

Update: Parker Molloy:

Yesterday, the Associated Press found itself locked out of an Oval Office press event for refusing to bow to presidential pressure to change its style guide. The reason? The AP won’t refer to the Gulf of Mexico exclusively as the “Gulf of America,” as newly-renamed by executive order.

This may seem like a relatively minor dispute on the surface. After all, what’s in a name? But that’s exactly what makes this such a perfect example of how authoritarianism creeps into our lives — it starts with something that might feel insignificant before snowballing into something much worse.

This is far more troubling.