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Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again

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31–40 of 90 posts

Re: Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again

#31
post #22

I get why people want Apple and Google to push back but ultimately there isn’t any logical approach for them to operate that isn’t “name things as the relevant governmental bodies name them”. Otherwise what source of truth is there? The responsibility here is with a spineless government. An executive order is not a law and a congress that did its job would quickly contract these kind of mad king declarations.

The government has no right to name geographic features. The names are established by popular usage, not the feds. As such Google and Apple should not listen to the demands of a body which has no right to make them in the first place.

“Popular usage” is all very well and good until you have to quantify it in some way. No way it wouldn’t be a complete mess.

For example: the body of water between the UK and France. The UK calls it “the English Channel”. The French call it “la Manche”. It has no official international name. In Google Maps both names are used depending on what country/language you are using. Choosing one via popular usage would not be a good solution.

Re: Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again

#32

Finding MapQuest on the PlayStore was a quest all on its own. More specifically, it does not exist on my PlayStore, and I had to install it on my phone remotely through the browser PlayStore. Review wise, it sits firmly at a single star, so it's possible that Google burried it, although I would not put it past them to rig things.

[deleted]

Re: Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as opposed to a top of the barrel advertising company like Google

There is significant differences in advertising. The things at the bottom of the barrel in advertising are often literally malware.

Nah, it's all malware. Some just for your brain.

Re: Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as opposed to a top of the barrel advertising company like Google

There is significant differences in advertising. The things at the bottom of the barrel in advertising are often literally malware.

You mean like software that restricts what your devices can do and collects and sells your personal information? Its the very same barrel.

Re: Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Or we could not bend the knee to a single old man throwing a tantrum.

The same people throwing a tantrum about the inconsequential naming of a lake are now throwing a shit-fit after they discovered their newly beloved MapQuest doesn't show their preferred borders for Palestine, so I'm quite enjoying this play out.

Re: Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or we could not bend the knee to a single old man throwing a tantrum.

What about the executive order reads as someone throwing a tantrum? https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/hono...

I don’t understand why the phrasing of the order matters. It’s very obviously a petulant and childish move made in response to trade negotiation failures with Canada. That’s literally what Trump himself has said:

> The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/1171557898746...

Re: Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again

#37
post #20

I enjoy how Bing Maps (and Bing in general) are so unloved that it's not even part of the debate. (Bing Maps hasn't changed - yet - but probably will eventually, since they caved on the Gulf of Mexico)

Not only did I have no idea that Bing or Bing Maps still existed, but the very fact that they ever existed at all had slipped from my consciousness.

Re: Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again

#38
post #5

They'll get their 15 minutes, but there's no _there_ there. They're owned by System1, a bottom-of-the-barrel advertising company where 1990s web brands go to die (Metacrawler? Startpage.com?? Dogpile?!?!). Their maps are OpenStreetMaps maps. People think they have their back (because OSM is showing Lake Ontario), but it's just marketing.

[dead]

Re: Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again

#39
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be, but it's still what many people want.

[flagged]

First, I suspect that if they buy a laminated map for children, it still has the old name, since there hasn't been time to print new ones and work them all the way through the supply chain.

Second, I don't think anyone is losing sleep at night over this, except for maybe Trump.

But third, yes, some of us do like, in our own small and quiet ways, not to cooperate with pettiness, arbitrary authority, and executive overreach.

Re: Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or we could not bend the knee to a single old man throwing a tantrum.

What about the executive order reads as someone throwing a tantrum? https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/hono...

That such an order exists is the giveaway

It's part of the "flood the field with bullshit" scheme of Steve Bannon

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