Are you visiting the Great Lakes before the end of summer? You may notice something odd when planning out the trip on Google.
Lake Ontario is no more. Google Maps has renamed it to “Lake America.”
Credit: Google Maps
Try typing “Lake Ontario” into Google Search as well. Google takes users to a search results page for “Lake America.”
Credit: Google Search
Last week, amid an ongoing trade war with Canada, President Donald Trump issued an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America.
“In recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that the Lake officially be renamed as Lake America,” Trump said in his order, while taking a few swipes at Canada.
Google, likely anticipating that the change would be divisive, issued a statement on its News from Google website.
“The U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has formally changed the name for ‘Lake Ontario’ to ‘Lake America’ in the United States,” the company said. “Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the U.S., people using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names. These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now.”
Credit: Google Maps
As Google explained, “Lake America” shows for U.S. users, “Lake Ontario” appears for Canadian users, and everyone else will see “Lake Ontario” followed by “Lake America” in parentheses.
Google has rolled out similar changes before. Trump issued a similar proclamation last year, changing the “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America.” Google also reflected the name change on its platforms. Google shared the same explanation at the time as well, stating it follows official government sources. In both of these cases, that’s the GNIS.
Still, the sudden change could be jarring for users, especially if they haven’t been following the news on Trump’s ever-changing trade wars.