Summary
Google Maps has blocked reviews for the Gulf of Mexico after backlash over renaming it “Gulf of America” for U.S. users, following a Trump executive order.
Critics accused Google of censorship after it removed negative reviews. Google defended the move, citing policies against off-topic content.
Mexico’s President Sheinbaum opposed the change and may take legal action. Apple Maps also adopted the new name.
The controversy adds to concerns over tech companies aligning with Trump, following Meta’s rollback of fact-checking and diversity initiatives.
Can they make Google list Canada as a state along with Greenland, then we won’t have to invade???
Always remember: Fascism is a feature of capitalism. In desperate times capitalism pushes facism.
Also capitalists are always gone be happy to work with fascists, because it gives them more power and money.
Fascism is a feature of being human.
Self-described communists can also fall very easy into fascism; remember the Soviets were friendly with the Nazis while they both launched imperial expansionist campaigns across Eastern Europe and split Poland between each other. Hitler and Stalin found common ground in being “anti- Western capitalism”. Some historians call the USSR the “red fascists”.
I think real, global communism will be the solution to fascism. It will require the overthrow of all capitalist systems.
Oh I didn’t know Apple is also a fuckboi.
Surprisingly it didn’t make the news like when Google did it, how come? Especially with how big apple is in USA.
Google Maps is by far the most popular map app which is why it’s more newsworthy.
Anyone else remembering the good old “do no evil” times from Google, where it actually was and enrichment for humanity?
And here we are today.
Fuck large companies, open source software is the only way forward
Always has been.
If anybody actually read the text of the executive order, they would immediately see that, unlike Trump & co. claim, it actually does not rename the Gulf of Mexico:
rename as the ‘‘Gulf of America’’ the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico
This “renames” as “Gulf of America” the part of Gulf of Mexico in US territorial waters. (Though how you can “rename” something which never had a specific name is unclear to me.) In other words, it is simply incorrect to label the entire gulf as Gulf of America even according to the text of the executive order. Instead, Gulf of America should be a sub-area in the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico.
But they know no one will read the fine print. They’ll get the news coverage they want out of it.
This is pretty much the best case scenario I was expecting. Glad I had a hand in pestering them.
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Just downloaded Organic Maps as a replacement. No ads/tracking plus it’s open source and uses OSM. Seems pretty cool so far.
Magic Earth is a great companion for turn-based driving GPS. I just need these apps business search and discovery to be better. For example, it’s really easy to find coffee shops and compare quickly using google maps and it’s basically impossible on open source methods. Wider adoption should help but it feels years away for normal people with short patience to try.
No. Don’t give up the fight this easily. Google will eventually allow reviews again once this whole thing calms down. And that’s when we strike again.
If you really want to stick it to Google, the best way to do so as an individual is by dropping their products. Better to support products/companies you can trust than to try to bully a soulless corporation into acting like it gives a shit again.
Guys this isn’t activism, this isn’t protest, this isn’t going to stop fascism. Go outside.
I like organic maps but if you are not in a pretty densely populated area that people update regularly, you’re straight up just not going to have some things on it for years. Even in major cities you need to get used to knowing the exact address to input, as well as understand that it is not giving you an optimal route that takes into account things like traffic or road construction or other variables. It basically just gives you what it thinks is the shortest distance from point A to point B, which is more often than not not the best route.
I like it, I use it for probably 30-40% of my navigation. But you have been warned. It’s akin to pre-loaded car navigation from 15 years ago.
I am in a more remote area. Coverage is good in towns but not on residential streets.
I use StreetComplete as I walk around new areas and try to fill things in. It gamifies it a little bit with “quests” but you can do your own thing.
Its great seeing the fast feedback loop into Organic Maps at the next update.
So street complete fill outs OM?
The dataset (“what you have on it”) and the quality of navigation are two very different things. For the first you can help directly to address it, for example with the app StreetComplete.
The solution, of course, is to become an OSM contributor.
Yes, it’s excellent. OSM will very likely accept the new name as well over time.
Totally useless for me, unfortunately. I’m in a new town and a new country and the lack of information on it compared to either Google or Apple makes it something I have no reason to use.
I hope it gets better so I can switch. I really don’t have a choice right now if I want to get around and just do basic things like find out what shops are open.
Yeah I tried to get past bad naming but it’s just very annoying to have all the places in your town named as if they are in the next town over the river in a different province !
Register an OSM account and be the change you want to see in your local map!
How can I be the change I want to see when I don’t have the information I need in the first place?
I don’t mean that you need to enter info there that you don’t have. But - you found a new shop? Cool. Enter it in OSM. Or checking it’s correctly in OSM. Or append their opening hours to the data set or…
For some easy edits, there’s e.g. the android(?) app StreetComplete which will show „quests“ on OSM in your area to complete datasets. Like „is this street lit?“ „what surface does this road have?“, „are there board walks?“, „what’s this house number here?“, „what’s name of this street?“ and so on.
You can do such things on an afternoon stroll in your area and it will help you learn your surroundings and discover things.
I am far to busy to take afternoon strolls. If I am going out, it is for a specific reason. Otherwise I am job hunting or volunteering on human rights campaigns. This is just not something I can contribute to right now.
Also, the only map app that I have seen that gives me proper walking directions that actually pays attention to the many footpaths which can shave minutes off the walking is Apple Maps. I certainly do not have time to train some other map app on the most efficient walking route via experimentation when Google won’t even do it.
I am far to busy to take afternoon strolls.
Bro, you have 3600 posts and almost 30.000 comments in 1.5 years on this platform, I see you in almost any instance and in countless communities.
Please, take an afternoon stroll.
💀💀💀💀
And it takes me seconds to make them in between searching for the jobs I’ve only been searching for in the last three weeks.
But sure, count the entire 1.5 years.
Amazing how people just assume because you can take 30 seconds of time every so often to look at Lemmy, you have all the time in the world. What the fuck else am I supposed to do when I’m taking breaks, stick my finger in my ass?
As much as you and I often bicker with you I am inclined to agree that it’s unreasonable for someone who needs a daily driver navigation app on their phone to be told “go mark all the spots so you can have it!”
However, they are right that for you to say you are “too busy” given how much time you spend around here is also ridiculous.
It takes me 30 seconds to look at a tab on my laptop when taking a break (something I haven’t actually done for hours now). It doesn’t take me 30 seconds to stroll around.
Maybe you don’t actually know what I do all day? Maybe you’re the world’s slowest typist and responding to someone on Lemmy takes you the length of a stroll?
I’m in the us and it doesn’t even recognize street names on my city. Labeling buisnesses doesn’t matter.
You can still post photos with comments, fyi
Ah yes censoring your detractors, the go-to move of someone who is confident that they’re in the right
Google also blocks bad reviews about Tesla Gigafactory Berlin.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/02/14/google-maps-political-borders/
This is not new. Google will show citizens of a country whatever that country’s leadership wants them to see. Usually it’s related to disputed territory from wars, but has also included whiny bullshit like this.
This is new though. The difference is, it’s not being limited to citizens of one country. It’s being shown globally, regardless of location.
This is from the EU.
It’s not new, they’ve done that for other places where the name has changed. Like “Myanmar (Burma)”.
But that’s a more complicated situation. This is just ridiculous internal US politics. It’s firmly incorrect to even mention GuA outside of the USA
Would you want the USA name on maps across the world changed if some country like Belgium or Canada legally renamed it to Trumpistan?
This is just ridiculous internal US politics.
That’s all any of this is. Look at all the disputed names and you’re going to hit your daily quota on “stupid conflicts” real fast.
Would you want the USA name on maps across the world changed if some country like Belgium or Canada legally renamed it to Trumpistan?
“Sea of Japan” shows with “(East Sea)” under it right now. So it probably would?
I gave it a 5 star rating and left this as my review.
“Regardless of what a Racist, Fascist, Fear-mongering, Election rigging POS would have you believe; it’s the Gulf of Mexico.”
People need to stop using Google shit services. Like, seriously. There are so many other good services provided by other companies or even just people who make them for fun as a hobby.
Google Maps has been hardest for me to replace. No one else seems to have the business directory aspect as good. Happy to hear suggestions!
Yelp is pretty good in the USA, at least for people that live in areas where it’s commonly used. Not sure about other countries. In Australia, Urban Spoon (which later became Zomato) used to be popular for restaurants, but it pretty much died off many years ago now.
Ah yes, I remember the promise of Yelp but its implementation on iOS has been the actual worst user experience for years. It is nothing but frustrating that it almost seems purposeful
Hard disagree. Yelp is terrible in the US.
Find me a replacement for Google Docs and I’m in.
LibreOffice has just announced a wasm port of their suite, to run on and offline…
What’s a wasm?
wasm is short for ‘web assembly’, a binary format for programs to run in web browsers (like a lower-level, faster javascript). I think the goal is to have LibreOffice run in a browser with all the same capabilities as native desktop LibreOffice.
I’m not sure that it has all the same features you’d need but protondrive exists
Is that the same Proton who’s ceo recently decided he wanted to throw his hat in the trump dick sucking ring… Despite not even being in the US?
I’ve been using CryptPad.fr and its ace!
I just tried that actually.
Not at all impressed with its integrated OnlyOffice. I want an alternative to MS office not a clone.
I’m all for dropping Google if you can, but this is not Google’s fault, it’s Trump’s. Google is simply abiding by its policies of showing names chosen by a given country. If you’re in Mexico, my understanding is that it still shows Gulf of Mexico.
Ah, and as far as dropping Google maps… seriously, I can’t find a valid alternative with real time traffic data as good as Google, free or paid, what do you suggest?
I’ve been using Here we go for years. I think it started as a Nokia project, that spun off to it’s own thing. I started using to conserve data. You download the map of your region when you have Wi-Fi, and it’s pretty low data load from there, directions and traffic updates mostly. I’ve been happy with it for a long time. I haven’t opened g-maps in ages. I know there are other options out there, open source and what not, but I never felt the need to try anything else out.
Sure, all these giant corporations have no choice but to tongue Trump’s butthole.
EDIT:
Google is simply abiding by its policies of showing names chosen by a given country.
But this is specifically not the country (as in Congress or the majority of people) choosing it. This was an Executive Order because Trump hates Brown people. It’s also not legal.
I find Waze has better real-time traffic info. Driving time estimates may vary a bit more, but I find it to be a more than adequate replacement for most tasks.
You do have to gut check some of its suggestions, though: it seems to think some roads are slower, even when they’re not as busy, and will route around them.
Isn’t Waze owned by Google too?
Thanks for the suggestion, but yeah, Waze is Google. Also, unless it improved a lot lately, I really didn’t like it, personally.
On Android, Organic Maps or OsmAnd are pretty good if traffic data is not needed, Magic Earth has “traffic” but it’s not accurate and pales compared to gmaps. What else is there? sygic? tom tom? I tried them all a few years ago, they all had some big deal breaker. Maybe I should look at them again.
Waze has been owned by Google since 2013.
I blame google. If it takes an act of congress to rename a post office then renaming the gulf should too.
Still not Google’s fault.
It shows me Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).
The article says that for the rest of the world it still shows “Gulf of Mexico” … I’m in the USA so I can’t check. Are you saying that you are not in the USA and it shows both names?
Yes, it shows both, which is what makes it so ridiculous. The white nationalist government of one country on the entire planet refers to it by that name, the country that Google is based in, and everyone else in the world is forced to see it? You can’t convince me that’s not politically motivated.
Yeah, that is ridiculous. I don’t really have a lot of respect for Google already, but this erodes that but of respect I had left for them.
In Germany it shows Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico)
NZ here, shows:
click for screen shot
Yes, here in Canada it shows both, with Gulf of America in brackets.
I’m in Canada and it shows me the bullshit name. The way Google correctly handles highly temporary vanity bullshit is to limit the name change to just that country’s users.
Bull turkey.
1st Amendment: Trump can’t order Google what to call any particular location. He can ask, Google can follow along (or not), and we can tell Google to get bent (or not).
I guess it’s time to give Google campuses 1 Star reviews?
