70 points terminalbraid 1 hour ago 44 comments
imafish 48 minutes ago | parent
comboy 27 minutes ago | parent
RajT88 9 minutes ago | parent
philipov 47 minutes ago | parent
> But if different countries dispute the proper name for a body of water, our policy is to display both names, with each label placed closer to the country or countries that use it.
Clearly that policy has changed since 2008. Not surprising, since that's before they decided to officially be evil.
ericmay 20 minutes ago | parent
The expansion of the internet advertising industry, addiction algorithms via YouTube and/or other dark patterns, and more were pretty evil from the start. If you need a slogan to remind you to not be evil, maybe you shouldn’t be anywhere near power. It’s one of those tells in advertising - if you have to tell me you are something you probably aren’t whatever you are claiming to be.
Renaming Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, and renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America just aren’t in the same room in terms of “evil” things. Annoying perhaps? Sure. Evil? Not. A. Chance.
Nobody really cares about this stuff in day-to-day life besides people who desire to be outraged as a way of entertaining themselves or mask over some other personal deficiency they have.
What countries call it the South China Sea? What does France call the English Channel?
Had this occurred 100 years ago we wouldn’t even be talking about it today.
philipov 10 minutes ago | parent
GS_TO 44 minutes ago | parent
Dunewalnut22 43 minutes ago | parent
mapontosevenths 40 minutes ago | parent
ActionHank 28 minutes ago | parent
Just because the US has decided to smear faeces on their walls doesn't mean we all need to admire it.
chipotle_coyote 19 minutes ago | parent
This sounds to me like for all users it should display both names. Perhaps to US users it displays "Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico)" and everywhere else it displays "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)", although the literal text suggests it should say "Gulf of Mexico" in an area of the map closest to Mexico and "Gulf of America" in an area of the map closest to the US.
mapontosevenths 42 minutes ago | parent
They violated their own policy with the gulf then.
lallysingh 40 minutes ago | parent
freecodeio 24 minutes ago | parent
nervai 21 minutes ago | parent
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/07/08/sergey-...
coef2 22 minutes ago | parent
rickdeckard 10 minutes ago | parent
Although there is also no definition of "common usage". A new name might already qualify if the local government adjacent to this landmark announces to only use this new name from now on.
Reading the article, I assume this would cause the new name to be immediately shown in brackets next to the old name, or am I missing something?
poulpy123 8 minutes ago | parent
Anyway I don't think google should be the one choosing the names they call water bodies. They just need to use the official names for the IPs countries, and show lake america, gulf of america, ocean america, asian america, european america and african america if Trump makes it official, but only for the US IPs.
rickdeckard 5 minutes ago | parent
"Under this policy, the English Google Earth client displays the primary, common, local name(s) given to a body of water by the sovereign nations that border it. If all bordering countries agree on the name, then the common single name is displayed (e.g. "Caribbean Sea" in English, "Mar Caribe" in Spanish, etc.). But if different countries dispute the proper name for a body of water, our policy is to display both names, with each label placed closer to the country or countries that use it."
Which basically means "multiple names until all bordering countries agree on the same name", if I'm not mistaken
thrance 40 minutes ago | parent
Yeah, right, until a wannabe despot comes in and demands Google come lick its boots. In which case Google immediately complies with zero objection.
toyg 15 minutes ago | parent
Trasmatta 33 minutes ago | parent
> How Google determines the names for bodies of water in Google Earth
But the HN link is
> Google determines the names for bodies of water in Google Earth
Is this one of those cases where HN automatically changes the submission name? Because removing the `how` really changes the meaning here.
cubefox 28 minutes ago | parent
yreg 27 minutes ago | parent
I don't like these magical (unexpected) solutions.
mikelitoris 32 minutes ago | parent
alansaber 27 minutes ago | parent
cubefox 25 minutes ago | parent
Also: Why is this comment downvoted?
psbp 18 minutes ago | parent
chipotle_coyote 17 minutes ago | parent
anew 6 minutes ago | parent
cbondurant 14 minutes ago | parent
Then you look at the current day with the "Gulf of America" which fails to be primary, common, or local, and just get disappointed.
paulvnickerson 6 minutes ago | parent
afavour 5 minutes ago | parent