Google will comply with President Donald Trump’s instructions regarding the names of the Gulf of Mexico and Denali on its maps. As announced by the company last Monday, the changes will be made when the government updates its official listings for the body of water and the mountain in Alaska.
"We have a long-standing practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources," explained Google in a post on the social network X.
Trump, whose inauguration received significant financial support from Google, among other companies, ordered that the body of water bordered by the southern United States, Mexico, and Cuba be renamed the Gulf of America after assuming his second term. The president also ordered that the country’s tallest mountain peak be called Mount McKinley once again.
Google donated one million dollars to the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States and CEO Sundar Pichai had a privileged location at the swearing-in ceremony held at the Capitol in Washington on Monday, January 20th.
What will be the name change for the Gulf of Mexico and Denali?
The company said that Maps will reflect any updates to the Geographic Names Information System, a database of over 1 million geographic locations in the United States. “When that happens, we will quickly update Google Maps in the United States to show Mount McKinley and the Gulf of America,” Google pointed out.
However, Google pointed out that it will be visible in the United States, but the name will continue to be Gulf of Mexico in Mexico. Outside of the two countries, users will see both names on Google Maps.
The Department of the Interior in the Trump administration said on Friday that it had officially changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and the name of Alaska's Denali peak to Mount McKinley, which will also undergo a similar change on Maps.
"Denali" is the name preferred by the natives of Alaska for the famous mountain. In 2015, the then President Barack Obama ordered that its previous name "McKinley" be changed, in honor of President William McKinley, designated in the late 19th century by a gold prospector.