Comment by Marsymars
2 hours ago
> It's not Google's job to name bodies of water
It kind of is.
If the US executive branch published an order renaming every street in America to "America Street", I suspect Google would not update Google Maps to reflect that unless the government compelled them to do so.
Google has made a choice about where they're placing the bar for voluntary action.
No, it kind of isn't.
You are merely noting Google Maps has an imperative to be useful.
The notion of a street name is meaningless if they all have the same name. It doesn't change the fact that it's not Google's job to name them. If the government did that and postage and signs eventually changed, one would expect Google Maps to likely cease to refer to street names at all.
I often find when traveling in unfamiliar areas giving me a street name is a profoundly unhelpful manner of instruction unless there is adequate signage, and there often isn't. A more reliable way is to say something like "make the turn at the stop sign" or "at the third light". The idea that it's Google's jobs to name things as if they don't rely on a sensible state is just nonsense. If the government turns into Alice in Wonderland at the end of the day Google Maps cannot exist. Google doesn't just assign a random name to every street or deliver the mail. It's not their job. Your strawman doesn't change that it just asks what would a company do if the government went completely off the rails. It doesn't change the fact Google doesn't bear responsibility for naming these features in the first place.