In addition to presenting himself as El Salvador de Tiktok, one of the first measures that Donald Trump took at the start of his second term as president of the United States focused on something much more traditional: the change of the names that appear on the maps. Specifically, the most controversial change affects the Gulf of Mexico, which through an executive order It is now called Gulf of America.
Obviously, the new name has not been well received throughout the world, especially by Mexicans, although there were many doubts about exactly How far the power of Donald Trump reaches And who was going to follow the game. And it is that changing the name of a location is not something as simple as putting a new one, especially in territory shared by several countries, and there are several international treaties to take into account. But above all, what most people wondered was: if I look for the Gulf of Mexico on Google Maps, what name will it appear?
Now, Google has given the answer, in a publication in your official X account (Antique Twitter), perhaps trying to anticipate the inevitable criticism, both from one side and another. In a rare transparency exercise, Google has explained the way in which it decides the names that appear on their maps, and why, for millions of users, The Gulf of Mexico will now appear as the Gulf of America.
Technically, Google will not follow the direct executive order of Donald Trump directly; But in practice, it will execute the changes you have ordered because these They will appear in official government sources. Specifically, for the United States Google follows the guidelines of the GNIS (Geographic Names Information System, geographical name information system), the government organization that establishes the standard to appoint locations and territories in the United States.
As the GNIS will have to change the name to Gulf of America for this executive order, Google Maps will also show that name in that location, erasing the name of Gulf of Mexico “quickly”in Google’s words. However, the company has been quick to clarify that this change will affect only users in the United States.
Google Maps shows the name “Gulfo de México” when you visit from Spain
The free android
And Google has a “usual practice” when names vary between countries. In that situation, Google Maps shows the local name to the users of each country. Therefore, In Mexico the location continues to appear with the name of “Gulf de México”and it won’t change. As for the rest of the world that has no official name for location, Google Maps has the policy of showing both names, in this case, “Gulf of Mexico / Gulf of America” or vice versa. At the time of writing these words, the location still shows the name “Gulf of Mexico” when visiting from Spain.
Google wanted to give a message of impartiality and normality; And this is not the first time that the company has to deal with a change of name made unilaterally by a government. In those cases, the company’s policy consists of detect user location to show you the borders and official names declared by his government.
For example, after Crimea’s invasion of 2014, Google showed the Peninsula as part of the Russian territory, but only if visited from Russia; If the user was Ukrainian, he was shown as part of Ukraine. From Spain and the rest of the world, Crimea was like Territory in disputewith a discontinuous line showing its borders.
It is also the same way in which, controversially, Ceuta and Melilla are shown, for the dispute between Morocco and Spain about these autonomous cities. Therefore, The situation of the Gulf of Mexico is not new for Googleand the company hopes that your practice of not taking sides will serve to content everyone; Something that, judging by reactions in social networks, is not getting.
