Comment by jordanb
6 hours ago
Google lied and claimed the change came from the USGS when the USGS metadata hadn't changed.
There exists no mechanism in the US for the president to force a private company to change the name of anything.
They did this to curry favor with the regime. It is naked sycophancy that shows exactly where the leadership of this company stands.
It's in USGS now: https://www.usgs.gov/news/featured-story/directed-president-...
Idk what timeline you're looking at, but if they knew it was changing anyway, might as well.
Also, the President in many ways has a lot of control over all three branches of government. Do they really want to risk contracts because USGS hasn't technically been updated yet?
Google claimed that they pull from USGS and they had no control of the name.
But the USGS database (GNIS) did not update when Google (and Apple) changed the name. Google's claim that they pulled from GNIS was untrue
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/google-maps-renames-...
Yes, I understand they changed it before GNIS, but it's updated now: https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/searc...
So again, it looks like they changed it to align to an upcoming change to official sources. They probably should not have claimed it was wholly dependent on USGS.
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