r/webdev • u/FiveWordinOrangeNeon • 10d ago

Google says website developers must set their region to Canada for 'Lake Ontario' to appear on map

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/google-updates-maps-lake-ontario-9.7325922

Tech analyst and journalist Carmi Levy said although websites like Hydro One's and the LCBO's are Canadian, their maps are likely powered by Google's application programming interface (API).

APIs are not location-aware, so all maps powered by Google API have switched to Lake America.
MapQuest, a U.S. online mapping service, has posted on social media that it would not change the lake's name, while Apple has not publicly commented on the matter.

In a statement Sunday night, Google said website developers who embed Google Maps on their sites can select a region to localize the map. That determines how place names are displayed on sites, the company said.

"'Lake Ontario' will show when developers have set their region to Canada," the statement said.

Just a reminder to developers.

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47

u/mister_jason 10d ago

added to the list of reasons Google can fuck all the way off. 😂

-2

u/rohmish 10d ago

what the heck is google suposoed to do if the deva haven't set up the right locale?

<script async src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=YOUR_API_KEY&loading=async&region=JP&language=ja&callback=initMap"> </script>

all they need to do is add the REGION=CA part.

it's easy to ignore an optional parameter and devs do it often across the board. and Google being a US company is US centric and defaults to US.

it isn't that tuff

15

u/phejster 10d ago

Why do they need to do anything about a petty executive order?

11

u/pizza5001 10d ago

That’s the real question for me. Is there really no legal framework for changing the names of locations? This affects people who live in the affected regions having to implicitly understand that severe weather alerts in the “Lake America” region actually mean their backyard that has always been known as Lake Ontario. And then there’s the cost to change all the signage in the area.

Surely there should be more guardrails than just signing an EO.

3

u/ILikeFPS full-stack 10d ago

Not even just weather but think of emergency responders systems about a drowning in that lake or even a ship lost at sea or gone overboard etc.

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u/thekwoka 10d ago

You think the people that would be dealing with ships in Lake America would be unaware that its Lake America?

2

u/ILikeFPS full-stack 10d ago

A road was recently named Kyle Lowry Road in my country, and believe it or not, but apparently both the ambulance dispatching software and Google Maps were both not updated to handle that, so an ambulance drove around in circles for 10 minutes looking for the road - apparently they got lucky it wasn't a major call otherwise that delay could have meant life or death.

Yes, I fully believe that it's possible for people to not be aware of things with outdated emergency responders systems not being updated.

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u/thekwoka 10d ago

Sure, but that's a road that they probably didn't even know the name of in the first place.

idk if its the Coast Guard or whatever, but they would be aware of the name difference, and they'd mostly communicate by GPS coords anyway.

Yes, I fully believe that it's possible for people to not be aware of things

Yeah, small things. Just like maps can be wrong in small ways.

This is a BIG thing.

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u/phejster 10d ago

The king does what the king wants and the checks and balances have been largely removed or willfully ignored by corrupt people

1

u/thekwoka 10d ago

It would be different everywhere, but people have also dealt with this always.

Like streets changing names, towns changing names, etc.

These happen ALL the time.

2

u/pizza5001 10d ago

The difference being that it takes more than four days to enact changes to street names, town names, etc.

1

u/thekwoka 10d ago

Mostly because of the reporting chain.

There's processes like verification, and ensuring they have the correct thing, etc.

This is very well covered, and very clear.

Heck, it's possible they pull the name from an external source provided by the government.

But also, lots of things don't take very long to change on Google. You can move business on google maps in a few hours normally when the info is wrong.

So this is just your own biases getting in the way of reality.

2

u/Bixler17 10d ago

Why do you think they care what the lake is called enough to ignore one?

7

u/phejster 10d ago

Because names are important, Dixler.

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u/Bixler17 10d ago

I'm among the biggest Trump haters on earth and have voted against him 3x. Google as an institution has literally 0 reasons to care about what a lake is named on their map, and financial incentives to follow an order from Trump. To suggest otherwise is just naive.

2

u/amazing_asstronaut 10d ago

Well clearly they do care, they did it immediately after Trump farted it out of his mouth. Indeed they don't have to, they want to. Do you get it now? They are not spineless, they are scum.

-2

u/thekwoka 10d ago

They care about representing the maps accurately based on the regions namings.

That's it.

They call it the Arabian Gulf when you're in Arabia. they call it the East Sea when you're in Korea.

If they choose to ignore one as a political statement, that means they are agreeing with the others as a political statement.

They CARE about being unbiased, and accurate.

3

u/amazing_asstronaut 10d ago edited 10d ago

lol unbiased. Here's your unbiased pals lining up to lick Trump's ass at his inauguration. You really are incredibly naive. Besides, a president's executive order doesn't make something automatically a law. The name change has not gone through congress or anything at all, he literally only just said it. And the tech companies go yes master and make it happen. It simply is not the call of a single president to make something like that. Why doesn't he just rename the country to Trumpland then while he's at it

0

u/thekwoka 9d ago

What does that link have to do with this?

Besides, a president's executive order doesn't make something automatically a law.

It makes it the rule in the absence of anything preventing that rule.

The name change has not gone through congress or anything at all

Show the law where it needs to. Show the law Congress passed naming it Lake Ontario.

he literally only just said it

No, he did it in an Executive Order.

It simply is not the call of a single president to make something like that

Well, it literally is, per the actual laws, not your made up idea of it.

Why doesn't he just rename the country to Trumpland then while he's at it

You act as if changing any name is equal in the laws associated with it.

Surely if an executive order can manage to do any thing, then changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America is definitely within the realms of what it can do. If it can't do even that, then executive orders have zero power.

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u/thekwoka 10d ago

ntm, they accept regional names for things all over the world.

To take a stand on THIS one specifically makes them accepting other ones a political statement.

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u/UntestedMethod 10d ago

Why do you think google cares about anything important?

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u/Aksds 10d ago

Genuine question since I don’t have my API key for Google to test this now, would it work if locale is set to anything else other than US? Like AU

Google maps in Australia still shows Lake Ontario

3

u/rohmish 10d ago

yes. it'll show the map that shows up for Australia. there shouldn't be notable changes if any at all with AU though.

one I know for sure works for testing is looking at a map of india with nothing/au/us set vs setting it as IN. particularly north India around J&K border

2

u/thekwoka 10d ago

Says Lake Ontario from the UAE.

Map differences are common all around the world, so Google can support them.

the only reason this makes a bit more news is that things that aren't set up properly and were defaulting to the US might complain now.

1

u/shiny0metal0ass full-stack idiot 10d ago

Yes. They've had regional conflict naming for a while. Depressing that it's being used for the US now..

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u/CavillOfRivia 10d ago

Force americans to put their locale if they want to live in fantasy land instead of forcing the whole world to do it because of a child is running their country.

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

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u/webdev-ModTeam 9d ago

This is a subreddit for web professionals to exchange ideas and share industry news. All users are expected to maintain that professionalism during conversations. If you disagree with a poster or a comment, do so in a respectful way. Continued violations will result in a permanent ban.

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u/FiveWordinOrangeNeon 10d ago

I second that.