• LeroyJenkins@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Apple changed it too? I literally had a coworker gloat about how they’re glad they switched to apple since their iPhone would NEVER do that bc Apple is an “ethical company”.

  • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    The place to protest this isn’t Google.

    We need to have everyone propose a name change to the official body in charge of place names, the US Board on Geographic Names.

    Unfortunately, one of the rules on name changes is “Changing a name merely to correct or re-establish historical usage is not in and of itself a reason to change a name.”

    On the other hand, they also say “The most important consideration is local use and acceptance,” so the sooner we act, the better.

  • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    I still think the name is apt, as “America” refers to the entire super-continent, North and South.

    In accordance with the more appropriate name for the great Gulf, I hereby propose that all Mexicans become also known as Americans, and all people from the United States henceforth become known as “USians”.

  • mm_maybe@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago

    This caused me to delete Google Maps, but their removal of Black History month from Google Calendar is what’s making me contemplate migrating everything else away from them…

    • underfreyja@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I started last week. Been contemplating doing it for a while and this whole disgusting series of events pushed me over the edge.

      Cancelled every paying google services I had and I’ve been replacing their apps with alternatives slowly but surely.

      For now it looks like this on my phone

      • Tidal replaces youtube music
      • Tom Tom replaced Waze unless I find something better
      • Back to using firefox instead of chrome with google / Facebook tracking blocking extensions and more
      • Got a proton mail and in the process of moving everything that matters to it

      Only thing I would love that I can’t get right now is an alternative OS for my phone that I don’t have to tinker a lot with, I know rhey exist but everything I read on the subject basically says: don’t bother. Setting up Endeavour OS on my laptop is already a lot of work for a 42 year old Linux noob like me, even though it’s far from the most complicated distro from what I understand…

      I also set another launcher on my smart tv, deactivated all the google accounts that I could and I’m in the process of setting up a plex server on my laptop which I’ll fill with loot from the High Seas. It’s really stupid of them because I was fine paying for the convenience of streaming but now I’m gonna make a point of not doing it and I’ll probably never gonna come back.

      Next, I need to figure out how to migrate my website / domain out of google but that’s a next week problem. By the end of the winter, I should be properly google / Microsoft free.

      It’s a harsh process I’m not gonna lie but it is very rewarding even though, I don’t lie to myself about the fact that it’s just another drop in the bucket and it’s not gonna change much in the end but at least I live better with myself by doing it.

        • underfreyja@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Ah damn… What’s good then? I’m not too far in my setup that I can’t make a switch again.

          And yeah you’re right, Google domain is squarespace but my whole setup is using their tools and I also want to move everything out of the usa, preferably to Canada as I’m Canadian but I’ll settle for Europe when nothing is available here.

    • Arghblarg@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      If you can, add a 1-star review in Play Store for Google Maps while you’re at it. And a comment why.

    • patacon_pisao@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Same, I wish I could do this for work, as we use G Suite :(. Times like these make me appreciate open source alternatives though, but there’s a lot of work to make those tools more widely available.

  • Euphorazine@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    First off fuck trump

    But my hot take is that google should show it as gulf of america and remove holidays from the calendar. Google should be a source of fact and the fact is the Republican administration has officially renamed the gulf of Mexico and removed those as federally recognized holidays.

    Google shouldn’t be “protesting”, the blame here is on the US government. I dont want Google’s “opinion” on things when I search. Be mad at Google when they also refuse to do black history doodles on their front page (like, right now I think)

      • Euphorazine@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        And yet he does with no consequences because of the Republican administration (and frankly, the non-progressive Democrats). It’s not Google’s job to be a check on the government. If the US government department that manages natural landmark names has that set in their records, that’s what should be reported.

        • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          So your entire point is discredited and all you can do is point fingers. By having even an ounce of self respect and just saying no would help end all this. Google and Apple are not beholden to this administration unless they want to be.

          By your logic we should all load ourselves onto the trains willingly because they said so and, after all, we don’t want to get “political”

          The real solution is to resist and not roll over. Pretending that act is anything other than resignation is denying the truth of what is happening.

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            You’re fighting the wrong enemy. Google is correct to use things officially published as fact - they are not the problem.

            The problem is Trump doing things where he doesn’t have authority, the other branches rolling over to let him usurp their Constitutional authority. That’s the problem. That’s what needs to be resisted. If there’s a way to define the locals who have naming priority, they have standing to fight

            • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              Google is wrong here and no one is forcing them to do anything. They are now part of the problem along with anyone else conceding to this madman.

              I do agree Aotus is the source, but everyone who goes along with it shares the blame and more importantly the shame.

          • Euphorazine@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            What are you talking about? I said that google should show what is fact, not their opinion. Pretending the US’s official name for the body of water is the gulf of Mexico is denying the truth of what is happening. Other people outside the US report that the gulf hasn’t been renamed for their location, this is a US problem.

            • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              Google should show what they think is right, stop giving them a free pass just because you want to. Companies have long resisted decisions issued by governments. Google has gone to court to fight many times but this does not even rise to that level.

              The fact is this is the Gulf of Mexico and we should not be renaming bodies of water on someone’s racist whims. We may just have to respectfully disagree here.

              • Euphorazine@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                Can you link me one time the government made a change google didn’t agree with, google continued operating as normal against the change, and challenged that change in court? That change being anything other than a new regulation that attempted to restrict some aspect of Google’s business?

                The only thing I’m able to find is essentially anti-trust lawsuits related to google search being the default in iOS and Android. I’m basically looking for any legal challenge google “resisted” for some societal good.

                (Edit: this isn’t like a challenge to your argument, I would just like to be better informed to see if google actually has partook in some sort of activism against the government other than fighting to continue their terrible business practices)

                • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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                  1 day ago

                  The most obvious example would be the recent antitrust litigation.

                  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Google_LLC_(2023)

                  But I think that falls into fighting to continue their terrible business practices.

                  The second is Google refusing warrants due to inadequacies. Google has stated they no longer respond to geofencing warrants although I am having a hard time finding data to back up this statement.

                  The third is a couple different cases involving private parties and state governments suing Google over violating privacy and illegally collecting data. Once again though, this probably falls under you definition of terrible business practices.

                  The fourth is Google’s transparency reports that expose request from the government. They have certainly received government pushback from this but I can’t really quantify this in any meaningful way.

  • Dave@lemmy.nz
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    3 days ago

    I was curious about Open Street Maps, since anyone can edit it.

    Gulf of America comes up specifically as an official name for US, and there is also a note about how if you change the English name without agreement in the discussion then it will be reverted:

    screen shot showing Open Street Map tags as described above, including the statement "Please see (link to discussion) before editing the name of this feature. Undiscussed changes will be reverted."

    Discussion is here: https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/gulf-of-america-gulf-of-mexico/124571

    It seems the general consensus is that the US have that as an official name, but it’s not the common English name so name:en stays as the Gulf of Mexico.

  • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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    3 days ago

    Even the german language version does this now.

    How long until the US pull a China and attack mexican fishing boats?

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      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.

    • FundMECFS@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 days ago

      I was crucified when I compared the two on an authoritarian leftist instance I shall not name, but I think people here can agree that despite having very different colours and propaganda, they both are both converging with the facist side of the spectrum.