MapQuest's App Surges to No. 1 In Navigation After Refusing to Rename Lake Ontario (techcrunch.com) 197
MapQuest's refusal to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America" has sent its app surging up the charts, making it the No. 1 navigation app in the U.S. and driving "hundreds of thousands" of new downloads. In contrast, Google Maps announced on Saturday that it was complying with the Trump administration's name change. TechCrunch reports: The "OG of online mapping," as the company calls itself, announced on Thursday that it would not change the name of Lake Ontario on its maps to Lake America, despite Trump's executive order directing the U.S. Department of the Interior to update the lake's name in the U.S. geographic naming service. As a result, MapQuest's mobile app downloads soared, sending the iOS app to the No. 4 position on the U.S. App Store's Top Charts for apps (not including games) as of Monday morning on the U.S. east coast.
MapQuest also reached the No. 8 position overall in the U.S. App Store across both apps and games, and it became the No. 1 Navigation app in the United States. In Canada's App Store, the app reached No. 2 overall as of Sunday evening. The 30-year-old company remarked that it received "hundreds of thousands" of new downloads since its decision to keep the name Lake Ontario in place, and saw its app's usage climb to 50 times above its normal levels. "We took the same approach we did with the Gulf of Mexico: be part of the conversation, and give people an app that keeps the names they're familiar with," said Doug Berger, general manager of MapQuest, in a statement. "Hundreds of thousands of people signaled to us this weekend that we got it right by downloading our app."
MapQuest also reached the No. 8 position overall in the U.S. App Store across both apps and games, and it became the No. 1 Navigation app in the United States. In Canada's App Store, the app reached No. 2 overall as of Sunday evening. The 30-year-old company remarked that it received "hundreds of thousands" of new downloads since its decision to keep the name Lake Ontario in place, and saw its app's usage climb to 50 times above its normal levels. "We took the same approach we did with the Gulf of Mexico: be part of the conversation, and give people an app that keeps the names they're familiar with," said Doug Berger, general manager of MapQuest, in a statement. "Hundreds of thousands of people signaled to us this weekend that we got it right by downloading our app."
Do no good (Score:5, Insightful)
Every day Google finds a new way to disappoint us.
Re:Do no good (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Do no good (Score:4, Interesting)
Not me. I decided on zero positive expectations from Google when they dropped "Don't be evil" and I think I was late at that point to do so.
Re:Do no good (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no keeping out of politics if you're a human on earth. The Germans kept out of politics as millions of Jews were slaughtered.
Inaction is an action. Inaction is a choice. Inaction is taking a side.
The alternative is to remove yourself from the situation, as some Americans have, by moving away. Shy of that, you're taking a side. The question is: Which one?
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I'm sorry but not naming things according to the authoritatively designated game has nothing to do with the holocaust. How did you even make that leap of logic. No one is asking Google turn a blind eye to commit an atrocity. Please calm the fuck down.
Shy of that, you're taking a side. The question is: Which one?
I'm taking the side that the naming system has an authoritative source. Or are you in favour of your ISP sending you to different addresses for domain names just because they should feel like it?
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What are you arguing? Because the US is not the authoritative source for the names of Lake Ontario or the Gulf of Mexico.
Lake Ontario was so named for the existence of the province of Ontario, Canada, or the United States.
Lake Ontario is also mostly contained within the borders of Canada, so if one of the two were to have naming authority over that body of water, it would most likely be Canada.
Also, that's not how these bodies of water get named.
So what are you arguing exactly?
The US government is not an au
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Lake Ontario was so named for the existence of the province of Ontario, Canada, or the United States.
It's name is much older than that, derived from the Iroquois name for the lake.
Re: Do no good (Score:2)
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Oh, you must be American, since you seem to be unaware that the Nazis did this exact sort of thing before they murdered millions. That's why I made the comparison.
It is yet another step that Donald Trump has made that follows in the footsteps of Nazi Germany.
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Is stopping paying for their food murder? Or was it the democracts feeding them and making them dependent on America's ongoing support the real crime here?
In what messed up, horrible, dystopian world is giving people food to eat a crime? People need to eat. We have more than enough food for everyone. We can afford to pay someone nearly a billion dollars to throw and hit a baseball. We have plenty of resources to share food with our neighbors and the world.
And if that isn't enough convincing, I would point out that the U.S. has often created the conditions in which people cannot access food. Globally, the U.S. (and other countries too, and in cooperation wit
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Did Hitler allow men in Women's basketball competitions?
The reason women's sports were developed was because women were excluded from sport. My mom, for example, played basketball in the 1950s but they didn't allow women to run the full length of the court. They had 5 women who played only defense and 5 women who played only offense (for both teams). This was because it was believed women were too frail for running the whole length of the court.
And after that history, of being founded on the idea of inclusion and participation for those who were historically e
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And for the idiot terrified of trans-women in women's sports, how does he - I'll say their pronoun is 'he' with 99% probability - feel about trans-MEN in men's sports?
Wrong on all counts (Score:2)
- I expect decent humans to stand up to authoritarian shitheads. Granted, Google leadership exited the "Decent human" category a long time ago, they've become the short of trash you don't call back. But the point holds; if you're going to support ethnic-supremacist authoritarians in my country, fuck you, you will not see a dime of my money and I will do what I c
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None of you (and I) thinking Trump is a despicable piece of shit has anything to do with what I wrote. The point I made is that naming systems, especially navigation have an authoritative source for a reason. When everyone makes up different names for things rather than using a single source of truth (regardless of how much you think that source of truth is run by an authoritarian dipshit) then the concept of navigation breaks down.
How would you like Slashdot.org to direct to a different website just becaus
Re: Wrong on all counts (Score:2)
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The President simply does not have the power to rename the things he's claimed to rename. Lake Ontario straddles two countries, so its naming ultimately is a matter for the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. In the case of the Gulf of Mexico, theres a different maritime committee that governs that.
Trump can certainly make the executive branch insist these new names are real, but theres no real legal weight to it. Its just some dumb shit by a demented old fool.
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Sorry, but that's just stupid. HE HAS NO LEGAL RIGHT TO RENAME SUCH THINGS.
I have as much right to do that as he does, and I hereby rename it Lake Epstein Files.
Rename Trump (Score:5, Funny)
Why don't the Canadians unilaterally decide to rename Trump to something more appropriate and insist on everyone using it?
Re:Rename Trump (Score:5, Funny)
"United States of America" has been a confusing and unwieldy name for a country for a while now.
I suggest we just call it "Trumpistan".
"Magakstan", "Shitholia" (Score:5, Funny)
"United States of America" has been a confusing and unwieldy name for a country for a while now.
"Magakstan" has been floated around.
Personally prefer "United Shitholes of America" - can keep the "U.S.A." abbreviation. Short form is now "Shitholia", with its citizens now known as "Shitholians".
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My preference is Eustatia.
I think I first proposed this around 1990, perhaps a little bit later.
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Megadeth already had a song "Amerikhastan" in 2007.
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Why don't the Canadians unilaterally decide to rename Trump to something more appropriate and insist on everyone using it?
We routinely call him more appropriate things, but there is a huge variety to choose from and it's hard to settle on just one. I don't think it is Canada's place to pick one anyway, he is so globally reviled in so many different languages. There should be some sort of international agreement on a the best derogatory label for the little man.
Re:Rename Trump (Score:5, Informative)
I don't think we need just one. Variety is wonderful. Mango Mussolini, Cheeto Benito, Agent Orange, Adolf Twitler, TACO. Even better, you can use a bunch of them to avoid repeating.
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At some point we need to compile a database.
I submit the following:
Temu Putin
Shitler
Orange Caligula
Dementia Donnie
President Von Shitzenpants
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That's one I haven't heard. Bravo.
Re:Rename Trump (Score:4, Insightful)
Supposedly Google's policies are to follow whatever names the locale the user is in uses. In some cases, this is legitimate, as there are several disputed territories around the world and Google isn't a position to pick and choose. On the other, clearly ridiculous situations such as where a President writes an EO, which merely orders his government to do something, and doesn't impact the rest of the country, are an absurd extreme of this.
But, if that's what they want, I'd totally understand if the Canadian government declares all Trump properties in the US having the name "Pedophile Palace", so someone who tries to find Mar-a-lago on Google Maps in Canada is instead presented with that name.
Maybe cheap and petty is the way to deal with cheap and petty.
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This is really the problem:
> I'd totally understand if the Canadian government declares all Trump properties in the US having the name "Pedophile Palace"
Attitudes tolerating immature and inappropriate behaviour from world leaders.
No. I wouldn't understand if my gov't did that. I would be vocal against it.
And no one else should either.
And this stupidity will persist so long as it's tolerated and described in terms that normalize it. Fuck this shit, it's so tiring.
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I'm in favor of this approach. These people are incapable of shame, but they are not incapable of being taunted and mocked mercilessly until the few people left in the Republican party that ARE capable of feeling shame have had enough or leave it to go the way of the Whigs.
We're WAY past disagreement over policy. This party needs either a severe reckoning, or a freshly dug grave.
Installed, and disabled Google Maps (Score:4, Insightful)
And then you still have to force it to stop after disabling it, because disable doesn't mean disable to Google. If they don't actually quit the app, how will they continue to steal your location data?
Oh yeah, from play services.
We've gotten to the point where phone makers shouldn't be allowed to bundle any apps with the phone. Gross.
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How about buy a non-Google phone if you don't like it.
Google Maps audio was ruined in March 2026 (Score:3, Interesting)
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Instructions are easy to give. We use road names and interstate names. We have numbers to "address" places. Telling me to turn after some random business, not as fucking helpful. That's the entire point of the streets being named.
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"I did something different than what the instructions said, because it seemed obvious!"
Imagine the disaster if they had actually tried to do it your way...
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The big "assumption" was where to type in the IP addres
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The bane of my existence is the goddamn know-it-alls who write instructions that leave critical steps out because they think "it's obvious."
If I already knew how to do it I wouldn't need instructions.
Rename Mar-a-lago (Score:5, Funny)
to "Epstein Resort"
OSM FTW (Score:3)
OSM still has the correct label. One can always use CoMaps or something rather than installing MapQuest malware.
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I can't verify, I'm not in America so even Google Maps says Lake Ontario, but if in the USA OSM doesn't show Lake America then they are not using the official Geographic Names information System, and very much *not* showing the correct label.
You may like that it's not showing the correct label, but unfortunately the way the system works the "correct" label objectively in America is Lake America. I'm not sure I want mapping companies to make up what they call things.
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I can't verify, I'm not in America so even Google Maps says Lake Ontario, but if in the USA OSM doesn't show Lake America then they are not using the official Geographic Names information System, and very much *not* showing the correct label.
Yes, I'm in the US and it shows Lake Ontario which *is* the correct label.
You may like that it's not showing the correct label, but unfortunately the way the system works the "correct" label objectively in America is Lake America. I'm not sure I want mapping companies to make up what they call things.
What do you mean by "correct" and "objectively" with regards to labels printed on maps? Do you believe maps are objective rather than political devices? Do you believe what the government says should trump shared lived experience, culture and understanding of users of a map?
Map makers have both power and responsibility to their users. It would be irresponsible (cough Google) to change a label to something you know is obviously wron
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Actually, OSM has added the "Lake America" alternative name as a US-specific official name by adding official_name:en-US=Lake America to the lake object. See changeset 188340009 [openstreetmap.org].
In OSM's tagging scheme, this is the correct way to do it: the US, and only the US, now officially refers to the lake as "Lake America", hence the use of a localised value for official_name=* However, the value of name=* is what is commonly rendered (depends on your renderer, but I'm yet to encounter one that cares about official_
Why is this even allowed? (Score:2)
Renaming bodies of water, mountains,.. really anything geographic, should require Congressional approval and not be something that a President can do on a whim because they're throwing a tantrum.
At the very least, Executive Orders of this nature should have a minimum time period before becoming active, like maybe 6 months to a year. That way Congress and the Courts can get involved if necessary before mapping companies, and other companies, expend resources ($$) to comply.
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Renaming bodies of water, mountains,.. really anything geographic, should require Congressional approval and not be something that a President can do on a whim because they're throwing a tantrum.
At the very least, Executive Orders of this nature should have a minimum time period before becoming active, like maybe 6 months to a year. That way Congress and the Courts can get involved if necessary before mapping companies, and other companies, expend resources ($$) to comply.
Good idea, then we can undo some of the politically correct renaming of Obama and Biden, and get back to the names that God and outdoorsmen like Teddy Roosevelt intended. :-)
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Hint: Woosh!
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Renaming bodies of water, mountains,.. really anything geographic, should require Congressional approval and not be something that a President can do on a whim because they're throwing a tantrum.
I think a better question is why should anyone even care? Geography and language belong to everyone. Who gives a shit what the president thinks?
Hopefully corporations like Google electing to completely abdicate their responsibility as map makers will serve as a catalyst for people to switch to other sources.
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Goodbye, Google Maps--it's been nice but I'm done (Score:2, Interesting)
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Does that mean you have an iPhone? I'm using Android and afaik it is not possible to delete Google Maps there (not that I actually use it on my phone).
Distraction (Score:5, Insightful)
Temporary fame (Score:4, Informative)
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Sure you can change miles to km, it's in settings under "Units of Measure"
No option for fathoms or leagues, though. I'd actually prefer to use rods. It just makes sense to me that 1 mile should be 320 rods.
Apple avoids the bad PR yet again (Score:2)
I see so many comments here and elsewhere upset at Google. Apple will let them take the heat and them make exactly the same change in a day or two on their own maps. Same as happened with the gulf of america nonsense.
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Our european overlords named Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario, 400 years ago. 250 years onwards and as a superpower, it is time for a change.
OK, so we change Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of Presidential Popularity and Lake Ontario to Lake TrumpRapedChildren?
I, for one (Score:2)
America America America America America America America America America America America America America America "America," America America America America-America America America America America America America America America America America America America America America America America
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Oh yeah! Well Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo!
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Re: I, for one (Score:2)
HOMES (Score:2)
In school I was taught HOMES - Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.
I'm not going to learn a new mnemonic that will only be valid for another 2 years (or less).
As a compromise, I recommend we rename a lake after Trump:
MATHS - Michigan, America, Trump, Huron, Superior
While it seems obvious to rename Superior to Trump, let us remember that Erie is the shallowest and most pollute of the Great Lakes.
Re: HOMES (Score:3)
"complying" (Score:2)
makes it sound like a legal obligation. Is it? I wanna see someone change it to Lake Epstein
As of this comment (Score:3)
NOAA still has Lake Ontario. Google is evil (Score:2)
Conclusion: Google is evil and or cowardly.
https://www.charts.noaa.gov/InteractiveCatalog/nrnc.shtml
Classic misdirect (Score:2)
archived 1 Sep 2026 10:05:24 UTC
Re:Good grief (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like Trump should be worried about bigger things.
Instead he's making these non-issues his top priority.
Get this loser out. The fact that he's still there is a mark of shame on the country that allows him to continue as their leader.
Re:Good grief (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like Trump should be worried about bigger things.
Instead he's making these non-issues his top priority.
He's trying to distract us from other things. Like the Iran war, high prices, his family's continued enrichment while he's in office, the Epstein files, and so on.
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And how's that worked out for him?
I guess we find out in ~60 days.
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And how's that worked out for him?
Better than I would have hoped.
But I should have expected it. Both parties are just leaches and clinger-ons, bottom feeders, and sycophants. Every once in a while someone with a little ambition comes along and can sweep the place, that is Trump.
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Better than I would have hoped.
But I should have expected it. Both parties are just leaches and clinger-ons, bottom feeders, and sycophants. Every once in a while someone with a little ambition comes along and can sweep the place, that is Trump.
Unfortunately for us the orange guy's motives aren't even slightly benevolent. He works for one person: himself. The other wealthy sociopaths just happen to benefit from the same policies, so bully for them.
All the orange god emperor has done is remove anyone remotely competent from our government, making it a even bigger shitshow than it already was.
Re: Good grief (Score:5, Insightful)
He's worried that people who support him might notice how he's fucking up, so he's employing a distraction. He's not very smart so this is the best he can do, but his followers are even less so, so this works.
Re: Good grief (Score:4, Insightful)
This morning I heard an interview with Rahm Emanuel, talking about his time as White House chief of staff in the Obama administration. He said that their focus was on confronting each problem, solving it, and then going on to the next one. Whereas the current administration seems to be focused on creating problems more than solving them.
IMHO it's because they want many of these new self-inflicted "problems" to serve as distractions.
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Re:Good grief (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe, but rename it to Lake of Mexico and watch the ensuing outrage.
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Names actually are useful, which is why we propers nouns at all.
Verbs are good too.
Re:Silly (Score:5, Informative)
I use a product based on how well it works.
Google Maps displays incorrect names for geographical locations.
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Touché! :D
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False. Google Maps displays the correct names according to the GNIS database. You not liking the official naming database for people located in America is a beef with GNIS and the government, not with Google maps.
For the record since we don't follow the GNIS here where I am right now, it says Lake Ontario and Gulf of Mexico.
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Google Maps displays incorrect names for geographical locations.
False. Google Maps displays the correct names according to the GNIS database. You not liking the official naming database for people located in America is a beef with GNIS and the government, not with Google maps.
In the real world everyone is responsible for their actions. People don't get to punt their own failures on to others. The but the government said excuses when you and everyone else knows what the government says is wrong is not a valid excuse.
This is akin to a doctor adopting RFK's vaccine conspiracy garbage arguing "vaccines do not cause autism is not an evidence-based claim" just because he got his nonsense printed on the CDC website. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccine-sa... [cdc.gov]
This is called professional malpra
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I use a product based on how well it works.
Google Maps displays incorrect names for geographical locations.
Indeed. They also get road names wrong, which is an issue when navigating back roads.
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Sorry, but who, officially, has the right to name the lake? I'm pretty sure it isn't the president.
Re: Silly (Score:2, Troll)
Apparently, the President does.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Note the lower case on "secretary of the interior" is the articles formatting, not my own. The lake in question has a border between two nations, so wouldn't this lake be on the exterior of each country?
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According to the Administrative Procedures Act, just because the President is in charge of appointing the people who make the decision doesn't mean he can instantly change anything. There's a whole rulemaking process that is supposed to happen first.
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Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not from the US), but the administration should only be able to change names FOR OFFICIAL PURPOSES. According to me, Google still could, if they wanted, serve different names based on IPs being within range of government agencies and public schools.
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Sorry, but who, officially, has the right to name the lake? I'm pretty sure it isn't the president.
That's sort of a different problem though isn't it. I don't want my mapping app playing politics. It should use the official name for things. In America that is following what's in the GNIS, elsewhere it's not (which is why Google Maps says Lake Ontario for me).
Re: Silly (Score:2)
I want everything I associate with to resist fascism. That's how people against fascism behave.
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That's sort of a different problem though isn't it. I don't want my mapping app playing politics.
Maps are inherently political.
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Things aren't instantly renamed when the king scribbles a decree.
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Executive orders only address the Executive Branch.
I'm not in the Executive Branch, so the president's EO doesn't have the authority to direct me to the men's room.
Google should have told them to shove it up their ass, as they are a private enterprise disconnected from the government, and the president's EO's are unenforceable bullshit.
Google did not do this, because they are too busy capitulating.
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Re: Silly (Score:2)
Re: "The Beating of a Liberal" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: "The Beating of a Liberal" (Score:4, Funny)
Throw both multiple Trumpistan politics in to a arena, with a bribe in the center, only the last surviving politics will be able to clain it!!
Plot twist, when grabbing the bribe, a trapdoor opens and he enters a new arena, with a new set of politics
call it "Obese Games", because they always want more!
Re:"The Beating of a Liberal" (Score:4, Insightful)
The only thing getting beaten here, is a dead horse.
Take your 2015 trolling with you on the way out, it wasn't funny then, it still isn't.
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Why would marines beat liberals anyway? It seems to be the republicans fucking up the armed forces.