Apple Maps Follows Google in Renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America
Apple Maps has officially relabelled Lake Ontario as Lake America, following Google in complying with a Trump executive order issued during a trade dispute with Canada. MapQuest has refused the change and has reportedly risen to the top of Apple's App Store as a result.
Written by James Carter
(1h ago)
What happened?
Apple Maps has officially renamed Lake Ontario to Lake America, following Google in complying with a Trump executive order tied to a trade dispute with Canada.
Why it matters
MapQuest has refused to rename either Lake Ontario or the Gulf of Mexico, a stance that has reportedly propelled it to the top of Apple's App Store.
Apple Maps has officially changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, joining Google in complying with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump during a trade dispute with Canada. Bloomberg, which reported the change, noted that Apple took longer to implement it than Google, which updated its service shortly after the new designation appeared in the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
The renaming is not uniform across all versions of the app. The Canadian edition continues to display "Lake Ontario", while international versions show both names, according to Bloomberg.
Gulf of Mexico precedent
The Lake Ontario change follows a pattern established when both Apple and Google renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in response to a separate Trump executive order. MapQuest has declined to make either change, and that stance appears to have had a notable commercial consequence: the service has climbed to the top position on Apple's App Store, a development The Verge attributes to the refusal.
Topics
People
Organizations
Places
Source: The Verge