Google Maps officially updated The name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Monday.
Among many other executive orders, President Donald Trump decreed the day of his inauguration that the Gulf of Mexico would be renamed the Gulf of America. This executive order also reverts a movement of the Obama era to change the name of Mount McKinley to Denali, the name that indigenous people have used for centuries. Similarly, the name of the Gulf of Mexico has been the most frequent name for the body of water since the 16th century.
The President fixed that these names are part of a gesture towards “[restoring] American pride in the history of American greatness. “
Until Monday afternoon, Google Maps users in the United States will see that the name of the Gulf of Mexico changed to be the Gulf of America. International users will see both names, while Mexican users will only see the Gulf of Mexico. Google already declared In January, it would comply with Trump’s executive order once the names of places were updated in the Geographic Name Information System of the United States.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said she would send a letter to Google questioning the company’s decision rename The Gulf of Mexico on Google Maps. But Google’s decision to change the name of the Gulf is consistent with its existing policies on how to navigate the differences in names between countries. In the mobile, Google changes the maps to align with the location of the user’s country, determined by the operating system, SIM and user’s network.
Although Google has complied with the Trump order, Apple has not yet updated the name of the Gulf of Mexico or Denali in its Maps application. When looking for “Gulf de América” in Apple Maps, the application did not yield any results.
The CEO of Google, Sussian Pichai and the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, attended the inauguration of Trump; Cook personally He donated $ 1 million to Trump’s opening fund, while Google also won a million $ 1 million contribution.
Update, 10/25, 9:30 PM ET with additional Google information.