MapQuest Is the Unexpected Hero in the ‘Lake America’ Maps Debacle
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For those who may have missed the latest round of silliness in the global trade wars, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” after trade talks between the US and Canada failed.
As with the last time the president chose to rename a large body of water, both Google and Apple have complied in a similar manner. Google made the first move over the weekend, announcing on Saturday that it simply follows the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) and since that’s formally changed the name of the lake, Google is simply complying with the new standard.
Apple Maps has now followed suit, but perhaps only after some direct pressure from the president himself. Yesterday, Reuters reported on comments by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who said in a Fox Business interview that “The president reached out to Apple directly, so I’m sure that we may be seeing that change coming up soon to Lake America.”
Personally, I can’t help but wonder at the timing of this change. While Burgum never said who President Trump had spoken with, it’s a safe bet he called Tim Cook directly, and, while I’m sure Cook simply had better things to do on his last day, as someone who lives near the shores of Lake Ontario, it makes me smile to think Cook might have deliberately punted the change to his successor’s administration.
Regardless, the change is now rolling out in Apple Maps, but as with the Gulf of America / Gulf of Mexico debacle of early 2025, it will only be going live in the US. In fact, it appears that both Google and Apple have taken a measured approach. In the US, the Great Lake will be dubbed “Lake America,” while in Canada it remains “Lake Ontario.” For the rest of the world, it will be “Lake Ontario (Lake America)” in Google Maps, but it’s not yet clear how Apple Maps plans to handle this.
As things stand right now, a search for “Lake America” on Apple Maps in Canada will provide “Lake Ontario” as a result, but it’s not clear if that’s a transitional change.
While Google Maps and Apple Maps will continue to show “Lake Ontario” when their respective maps are accessed through Canadian sources — including anonymous searches based on IP geolocation — the change has exposed how many Canadian websites rely on US data providers. As Global News reported yesterday, many Canadians noticed that maps on everything from Hydro One (Ontario’s hydroelectric provider) to Elections Canada all showed “Lake America” when viewing the Great Lake. Most of these services have since corrected that error, which stemmed from using US-based API calls to pull data from Google Maps. Most quickly corrected the issue as soon as they became aware of it.
Meanwhile, there’s one mapping provider that’s stubbornly holding out — and soaring to the top of the charts as a result. Anyone remember MapQuest? Well, it’s still alive and kicking, and it’s now sitting at number one on the App Store charts in Canada — beating out ChatGPT — and fourth in the US.
In a press release, MapQuest said it’s simply keeping “the historical, familiar names for lakes and gulfs on its maps,” while allowing users to rename the lake themselves if they really want to — not just to “Lake America” but to pretty much anything. (I can only imagine the creative uses people will make of this tool).
“We took the same approach we did with the Gulf of Mexico: be part of the conversation, and give people an app that keeps the names they’re familiar with,” said Doug Berger, MapQuest’s general manager. “Hundreds of thousands of people signaled to us this weekend that we got it right, by downloading our app.”
