Any Canadian business that uses embedded Google Maps maps had better reconsider that right now. https://globalnews.ca/news/12041171/google-maps-lake-america-ontario-government-websites/
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@misty To be fair, Google only applies the law here, and their behaviour on such topic has always been to display the official names in the country where the viewer is located. So, here, depending on where you sit, you should see Lake America instead of Lake Ontario.
They do exactly the same for disputed borders in other countries and I believe it makes sense.
Here the problem is not that much Google than the decision by the US.
Misty
@misty
Any Canadian business that uses embedded Google Maps maps had better reconsider that right now. https://globalnews.ca/news/12041171/google-maps-lake-america-ontario-government-websites/
Open street maps needs no internet connection to use and awesome.
Preload maps on your device, enjoy. You can also help the project by correcting errors or adding detail info.
rm-rf google
@misty Any business using Google should've better reconsidered that long ago.
@misty
I was about to point out that there are alternatives to Google Maps and that I assume that OpenStreetMaps still shows Lake Ontario...
But then I checked just to be sure and I was bitterly disappointed.
@misty BOYCOTT Google maps
@misty just did some quick googling (I know the irony…) here is how to embed a map from OpenStreetMap on a website.
Hydro One, is the division of Ontario Hydro that provides electricity to Ontario' rural areas. As of this morning, Lake Ontario had been replaced with Lake America on its power outage map. This afternoon they acknowledged this and blamed third party map providers for the change.
@misty not to harp on the same thing but it's fun to have this going on at the same time that the only thing Carney wants to spend money on instead of cutting funding is 'AI sovereignty' so we can end up paying these same American companies but with servers wasting our water and electricity
"Stephen Crawford, minister of public and business service delivery and procurement, said
*on X*
that some of the websites pull map data directly from Google Maps."
I wonder if there's some sort of philosophy about how governments use technology that made this outcome possible 🤔
@mcc Could you imagine! Depending on US services? Well they’re elbows up surely
@misty @mcc It would also be cheaper to run your own OpenStreetMap server with just the maps you need than footing the Google API bill when the AI crawler bots come for your server. This happened to https://www.faclair.com/ and for the price Google hit them with, I can run a small Hetzner box for decades.
