Google has had to deal with disputed place names a number of times.
There’s the Sea of Japan which has the parenthesized name “East Sea”, which I think is only used in Korea.
There’s the Persian Gulf sometimes known as the Arabian gulf.
There’s the Falkland Islands which the Argentinians refer to as Islas Malvinas.
What’s really dumb about this is that it goes directly against the old policy (from 2008) where they said:
When our policy says that we display the “primary, common, local” names for a body of water, each of those three adjectives has an important and distinct meaning. By saying “primary”, we aim to include names of dominant use, rather than having to add every conceivable local nickname or variation. By saying “common”, we mean to include names which are in widespread daily use, rather than giving immediate recognition to any arbitrary governmental re-naming. In other words, if a ruler announced that henceforth the Pacific Ocean would be named after her mother, we would not add that placemark unless and until the name came into common usage.
But, the Gulf of “America” is not in common usage anywhere. Canada should see only “Gulf of Mexico”, even though it shares a language with the country that officially renamed it to “Gulf of America”. And in particular Germany shouldn’t see anything about “Amerika” because that’s just not a thing in any German-speaking country.
Really, it should be Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico) in the US and whatever the local name is everywhere else.
Google has had to deal with disputed place names a number of times.
There’s the Sea of Japan which has the parenthesized name “East Sea”, which I think is only used in Korea.
There’s the Persian Gulf sometimes known as the Arabian gulf.
There’s the Falkland Islands which the Argentinians refer to as Islas Malvinas.
What’s really dumb about this is that it goes directly against the old policy (from 2008) where they said:
When our policy says that we display the “primary, common, local” names for a body of water, each of those three adjectives has an important and distinct meaning. By saying “primary”, we aim to include names of dominant use, rather than having to add every conceivable local nickname or variation. By saying “common”, we mean to include names which are in widespread daily use, rather than giving immediate recognition to any arbitrary governmental re-naming. In other words, if a ruler announced that henceforth the Pacific Ocean would be named after her mother, we would not add that placemark unless and until the name came into common usage.
But, the Gulf of “America” is not in common usage anywhere. Canada should see only “Gulf of Mexico”, even though it shares a language with the country that officially renamed it to “Gulf of America”. And in particular Germany shouldn’t see anything about “Amerika” because that’s just not a thing in any German-speaking country.
Really, it should be Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico) in the US and whatever the local name is everywhere else.