According to the company’s official tweet, the renaming of the gulf, as well as Denali Mountain to Mount McKinley in Google Maps, is possible with changes in the names of these objects in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) — a specialized database that contains names and information about the location of physical and cultural objects located in the USA and controlled territories. The database contains more than two million objects.
It is noted that this is a common practice for Google. Moreover, a geographical object in different countries has a local name, and then the residents of these countries see only the official name in the country of residence. But residents of other regions see both versions of the object’s name.
In other words, only users in the USA will see “American Gulf” instead of “Mexican Gulf” in Google Maps.
