This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I want to know how many of the people here defending Google's decision would be okay with Google labeling Taiwan as "Taiwan (Chinese Taipei)" for people in Taiwan and also the rest of the world.
Republicans are so good at baiting liberals into useless bullshit arguments, while they plunder stuff that actually matters.
Google also removed the ability to suggest edits to specifically the Gulf.
Guess they knew ahead of time they'd get an influx of requests to change or back.
Ive been already boycotting google, amazon, facebook, reddit. Yall need to get on it
My phone is a Pixel on Google Fi, and I have a YouTube premium account. I've got a lot of work ahead of me :( lol
Yeah its actually insane how far Googles reach has gotten
Nah. I'll start boycotting google when there are useful alternatives. Amazon, facebook, reddit - no problem.
Google search - fine, I can get by with DDG or Yandex. Gmail - sure, whatever. Maps? Organic Maps (and other openstreetmaps front-ends) works alright for getting your bearings, but it's a far cry from useful for finding businesses, and terrible for navigation. Waze used to be the only viable alternative, but ever since Google bought them, it's hard to justify a full boycott without massively inconveniencing myself.
Same for meta as a whole. Facebook and Instagram, sure, no need. But living without whatsapp is simply impossible in some countries, where it's the de-facto standard for communication, and even used as the only means of contact with government agencies.
If you disapprove of internet companies caving to authoritarian politics, I have bad news for you about Yandex
it really sucks when you realise that virtually everything is a US company... and yet everything they sell is made in fucking China
Where will the lawsuit be filed in?
Mexican courts? Good luck getting an American company to comply.
US Courts, well... surely no judge would be biased right? glances at the composition of the US Supreme court
International Courts? Lol like they have any power at all.
Reminds me of The Expanse:
"Earth Court? Mars Court? What Inner court gives Belters justice?"
Mexican courts? Good luck getting an American company to comply.
Why not? Brazilian courts ordered Twitter to ban some people, Twitter refused, court treated to jail Brazilian Twitter legal representatives, Twitter closed their Brazilian office to shield itself from Brazilian courts, Brazilian courts ordered ISPs to block Twitter because they had no legal representatives on the country, after a couple of weeks without Brazilian access Twitter bow down, rehired their legal representatives and complied with Brazilian court orders.
Don't see why Mexican courts couldn't do the same with Google Maps.
In order to do business in Mexico, they must agree to Mexican laws.
In order to do business in Canada, they must follow Canadian laws.
In order to do business in the US, they must ~~follow US laws~~ kiss the ring.
This isn't the first time big tech has had to tackle something like this. Usually it's with disputed territory. In that case, each region gets to see what it demands to see, while presenting something different to the rest of the world.
The suit should be by an American cartography company over the proper US Board on Geographic Names's official process not being followed for the name change.
I'm actually submitting a name change to the board through the official process. But since the USGS added a bit to the process saying that resetablishing historical names isn't a reason for a name change, I'm going to recommend it be changed to "The Gulf," since it meets all criteria for a name change - most importantly that it be a name in common usage by locals. Lots of people refer to it as "The Gulf," while "Gulf of America" isn't in common usage.
The most we can do outside of lawsuits is at least try to take the "America" part away.
Cancel all government contracts with google
And for the love of god do not switch over to another American company, or any company, go FOSS and decentralized
I prefer the name "golfo del gringo loco"
What's dumb about this is that in their jurisdiction (Mexico) it is actually the "Gulf of Mexico" in Google Maps, they don't get the "Gulf of America" name. In the US it's labelled as "Gulf of America" without mentioning "Gulf of Mexico" which you could argue Google has to do because it (theoretically) follows national laws everywhere it operates.
That's why Korean users don't see the Sea of Japan to their east, they see the East Sea. That's why in some locations the Persian Gulf is referred to as the Arabian Gulf instead. It's also why inside India the borders you see for Kashmir don't match the borders you see for Kashmir if you're in Pakistan. The rest of the world sees a third version of that area with areas marked as disputed.
What's really annoying is that every other country in the world is exposed to this "Gulf of America" silliness, even countries where people don't speak English. I can understand (just barely) having "(Gulf of America)" under "Gulf of Mexico" in English-speaking countries because if someone is hearing news from a US source and they refer to the Gulf of America, it might be useful to know what they're talking about. It's in the news now, but in 3 years say you're a high-school kid trying to do a geography report and can't find the feature on the map, that could be annoying.
But, this parenthesis rule apparently even extends to Germany, where it's "Golf von Mexiko (Golf von Amerika)". There's no reason to include a name that doesn't exist in your language on your version of the maps app. If I, as an English-maps user look at Germany, I don't get Munich (Munchen). I don't get Florence (Firenze), I don't get India (Bhārat). There's a long-standing tradition that maps show things in the name that's local to the map user. Sometimes, over time, a name gets changed to be closer to the way it's said in the local language, so Peking became Beijing.
Also, google addressed this in a blog post from 2008, almost literally describing this situation:
"How Google determines the names for bodies of water in Google Earth ... if a ruler announced that henceforth the Pacific Ocean would be named after her mother, we would not add that placemark unless and until the name came into common usage"
Other than the ruler not being female, the body of water being a different one, and "America" not being Donald Trump's mother, this is the exact situation.
Edit: I guess technically Donald Trump is female.
in their jurisdiction (Mexico) it is actually the "Gulf of Mexico" in Google Maps, they don't get the "Gulf of America" name.
I'm in Europe and for me it says "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)". 🥴
Don't even bother with a pointless lawsuit. Simply stop using Google.
Nah, they're a megacorp, you gotta hurt them where it counts - in their bottom line. Make them use their super expensive lawyers to defend this shit. Honestly more people/entities should do this. Even pro se, these corporate lawyers cost these companies literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to go into court. Just imagine how much you could cost them if everyone started suing them for any little thing. Even a response to a lawsuit requires a lawyer, which requires time and effort.
Its literally the only thing they care about - money. Strongly worded letters and protests aren't enough. They can ignore those.
Can someone just make a mod or something for g-maps to name all American names to like Spanish ones? Nuevo York, Guashintón Distrito de Columbia, that kinda stuff.
Just call it the Gulf of Fuck The Environment, We're Getting Rich!
While we are at renaming things...
or we keep american shit inside america. fuck googlemaps, apple and all other shitty US corporations. see, tump will die some day and be forgotten, but people will remember what apple and google did. next time you see someone work for alphabet...spit them in the face. next time an american buys a burger, you spit on it. etc. it is not about actual harm as america is killing itself anyway atm. my bingo card says if trump wins twice, there shall also be two pandemics. maybe protest the egg prices a bit more before using that muri-brain to do sth. against it. americans are just stupid.
Uninstalled 👍
