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It feels like the Gulf of America all over again.
Last year, President Donald Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico as part of an executive order. Now, in the middle of a trade war with Canada, he’s going back to the same playbook by issuing an order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America.
As happened last year, this could affect how the region is labeled on Apple Maps, Google Maps and Bing Maps. It took several weeks, but eventually all three ended up labeling the gulf differently based on the change in the Geographic Names Information System.
One holdout was MapQuest, which is already saying it will not be changing the name of Lake Ontario in its software. In a cheeky post on X, the company said, “We’re not changing the name of Lake Ontario. Name it whatever you want at your leisure,” inviting people to craft their own personalized names. It was accompanied by a screenshot showing “Lake Are We Doing This Again?”
CNET has reached out to Microsoft, Google and Apple for comment.
In an email to CNET, a White House spokesperson did not answer questions about MapQuest’s post or how soon the administration expects tech companies to comply. “As the President said yesterday, the majority of the great lake’s volume sits in United States territory,” Assistant Press Secretary Allison Schuster said. “Thanks to President Trump’s bold action, its name will now reflect its place in America and her heritage.”
One key difference
As the website Tech Times points out, one big difference between renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario is that the US-Canada border runs through the Great Lake. That means there are additional technology considerations even if the map apps go through with the change. For instance, it could require the name to change on the fly if someone is traveling across the border.
Apple, Google and Microsoft would be under no obligation to display the new name to customers in Canada.
Another wrinkle is that it could affect mnemonics. As part of the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario is remembered by students as part of the shorthand “HOMES.” As New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pointed out in her criticisms of Trump’s order, the new acronym could be “SHAME.”
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