Apple Maps Adopts New Lake Name
Apple Maps has officially rebranded Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” aligning with an earlier change made by Google. This renaming follows an executive order issued by President Donald Trump amidst a trade dispute with Canada. While the U.S. version of Apple Maps now displays the new designation, the Canadian counterpart continues to show “Lake Ontario.”
MapQuest Surges After Rejecting ‘Lake America’ Name
In a related development, the once-dominant mapping application MapQuest has experienced a significant surge, climbing to the top position in Apple’s U.S. App Store. This rise in popularity is attributed to MapQuest’s refusal to adopt Trump’s “Lake America” name. The app garnered over half of its 2026 U.S. downloads in just six days, indicating a notable user response to the politically charged renaming within mapping services.
While the article highlights the renaming of Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’ by Apple Maps, mirroring Google, it feels a bit simplistic to attribute MapQuest’s surge solely to its refusal to adopt the new name. Could there be other underlying factors contributing to its sudden popularity, perhaps new features or improved usability that coincided with this controversy? It seems a rather significant leap to assume such a massive download spike is purely a political statement by users, and I’m curious about the long-term sustainability of this trend.