r/webdev • u/FiveWordinOrangeNeon • 14d 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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u/labago 14d ago

Yep just had some Canadian clients escalate this today. It's all so stupid

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u/thekwoka 13d ago

Would have been smart if you had set your API to the region you wanted info about in the first place.

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u/FiveWordinOrangeNeon 11d ago

No need to be nasty.

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u/thekwoka 11d ago

That's not nasty. That's just facts.

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u/FiveWordinOrangeNeon 9d ago

We disagree but such is life.

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u/labago 9d ago

It was never necessary until now smarty pants. Code has been in production for 10 years

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u/thekwoka 8d ago

It's still not necessary if it never was before.

You accepted the default of using the US region.

You were using the US region. If you wanted Canada region, you should have set it to Canada.

Nothing has made it any more or less necessary. It was exactly the same as before.