--- title: "Google Maps Rival Surges In Popularity After It Refuses to Rename Lake Ontario" description: "The app MapQuest is surging in popularity after it refused to rename Lake Ontario, unlike its rival Google Maps." date: "2026-08-31" modified: "2026-08-31" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/google-maps-rival-surges-lake-ontario" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" --- # Google Maps Rival Surges In Popularity After It Refuses to Rename Lake Ontario ![Map showing the area around Lake Ontario, including cities such as Toronto, Barrie, Clarington, Belleville, Kingston, Rochester, and Buffalo. A green navigation icon with a right turn arrow is displayed over the lake. Interstate 81 is also marked near the New York area.]() When president Donald Trump, in his latest paroxysm, [declared that he would be renaming]() Lake Ontario to "Lake America," Google instantly capitulated. So eager was it to realize his will that it actually renamed the lake before official government map makers did, [*Ars Technica* noted](). No one really expected a tech monopoly to take a principled stand against the decision, but you might've expected it to at least pretend that it was deliberating acting on an order with [real diplomatic ramifications](). But that's not what Google did, and its rivals are now thanking it. MapQuest, the self-styled "OG of online mapping" that your mom probably used to print out before family roadtrips, announced defiantly on social media Thursday that it wouldn't be changing the name of Lake Ontario. The [posts]() garnered hundreds of thousands of likes on platforms including Instagram and X, and these viral moments seem to be translating into actual success. As [*TechCrunch* reports](), MapQuest's mobile app has consequently surged in popularity, rising its way to becoming the number one navigation app in all of the US on Apple's App Store. It's become so popular, in fact, that it also climbed to the fourth position on the App Store's Top Charts, which excludes games, and number eight overall across apps and games. Canadians approve of MapQuest's stand, too. Across the northern border, it reached number two overall as of Sunday evening, per *TechCrunch*. As they say: [do nothing, win](). "We're not changing it," MapQuest declared in the [viral post](), with a screenshot of a map showing Lake Ontario. Clearly relishing the moment, MapQuest made another dig days later. "We are aware that Lake Ontario is being correctly labeled on our map," it [posted](). In numbers, the surge is pretty impressive, too. *TechCrunch* cites data from the market intelligence firm Sensor Tower which shows that MapQuest saw 184,000 global downloads during the week of August 24, which is a more than ten-fold increase week-over-week. Google Maps announced the decision to comply with president Trump's executive order to rename Lake Ontario on Saturday, putting up a face of neutrality by saying it simply reflected its policy to adhere to the US's Geographic Names Information System. But since renaming entire geographical landscapes on a whim is apparently the norm in this day and age, MapQuest thought it'd empower users to do the same. Shortly after its viral post, it it released a tool that lets you rename Lake Ontario to whatever you want. "Lake Are We Doing This Again?" is the example the app chose to share. **More on Google:** [*Google AI Giving Staggeringly Racist "Advice" About Being Alone With Certain Groups of People*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()