Google has confirmed it will rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for users within the U.S. using Google Maps.
This change comes in response to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on January 20, his inauguration day, which called for the renaming of the body of water to reflect its economic and strategic importance to the nation. Because America, baby.
Google stated that the update will only be visible to users in the U.S., while the rest of the world will continue to see both names.
“We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps. We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” said Google on Monday afternoon.
“For geographic features in the U.S., this is when the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is updated. When that happens, we will update Google Maps in the U.S. quickly to show Mount McKinley and Gulf of America. Also longstanding practice: When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too,” said Google.
The executive order signed by President Trump emphasized the Gulf’s critical role in the U.S. economy and its global significance. Here’s the part about renaming the Gulf, which said, “The Gulf will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy, and in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that it officially be renamed the Gulf of America.”
Canadians will still see Gulf of Mexico in Google Maps. It’ll be interesting to see the name change (for giggles of course) when using a VPN and changing your location to the U.S.
The Gulf is an international body of water not owned by any single nation, despite being bordered by the U.S., Mexico and Cuba. Based on United Nation law, countries have jurisdiction that extends just over 22 km from coastlines.
No word on when Canada will be renamed to the Great 51st State of the U.S. (don’t hold your breath…).
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If Google is so obedient….maybe they can also stop censoring YouTube?
Geez, these companies have no backbone.
They are so afraid that Trump would badmouth about them. It's ok when it's about nations and their citizens (e.g., Canada, Mexico, Groenland) but god forbid that he starts bad-mouthing about "righteous" corporations.
I'll start calling them "United Statesians", since they don't seem to care about common usage of names.