MapQuest Surges to Top of App Store as Google Maps Faces Backlash Over Lake Ontario Renaming

Backlash against Google Maps for its decision to rename a lake on the US-Canada border after an executive order from US President Donald Trump has continued to grow, with MapQuest shooting up the download charts. Last week, amid trade tension between the US and Canada, Mr Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario, which sits between the Canadian province of Ontario and the US, as “Lake America”.

Caught in the middle are technology giants Apple and Google, which control most of the smartphone operating systems, the gateways to mapping apps in billions of pockets around the world. Google quickly changed the name to Lake America for US users, though in Canada, it is still Lake Ontario. For users elsewhere, Google Maps shows both the Lake Ontario and Lake America labels. It is not the first time Mr Trump has tried to rename a large body of water. Earlier in his second term, he signed a similar order to change the name “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America”. Mr Trump took the recent actions at a time when his approval ratings have reached historic lows, as prices for petrol, food and other items remain high amid the increasingly unpopular war with Iran.

MapQuest, the dominant navigation website during the earliest days of the internet, seems to be benefitting from the Lake Ontario controversy. Last week, it indicated it wouldn't be changing the name of Lake Ontario. “We're not changing the name of Lake Ontario. Name it whatever you want at your leisure,” it said in a post on X. The post has been reshared thousands of times, with many users saying they would start using the platform. On Tuesday, MapQuest hit number one on Apple's iPhone App Store. “The people have spoken,” the company said in a post showing a screengrab of mobile app download charts, with MapQuest ahead of ChatGPT, ESPN, TikTok and Claude. But blogger Chris Carley urged caution over MapQuest's sudden comeback, noting the traffic might be transient.

In explaining its decision to rename the lake, Alphabet-owned Google said it was merely following long-standing policy using data from the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). While Mr Trump's supporters celebrated the Google Maps update, opponents expressed anger over the decision. Technology analyst and podcaster Kara Swisher, technology entrepreneur Tom Herman, and Downington, Pennsylvania, Mayor Erica Deuso all voiced strong criticism against Google's compliance with the executive order. Apple, meanwhile, hasn't budged and has not responded to requests for comment, while new chief executive John Ternus has only just started his role.

Political scientist and public policy historian Timothy Kneeland noted that while US presidents can rename geographic features, Mr Trump likely skipped standard steps by bypassing the US Board on Geographic Names and the Secretary of the Interior.