Mapquest, now headquartered in Marina del Rey, has taken a public stance against a recent executive order from President Trump. The mapping service is refusing to adopt the new name “Lake America” for Lake Ontario, which Trump renamed just days ago. While Google Maps quickly began directing U.S. users to the rechristened Great Lake, and Apple Maps already reflects a change from the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America” from the president's first day in office, Mapquest is holding its ground.
“We’re not changing it,” Mapquest declared Friday in a Facebook post that featured a screenshot of the lake. The company also rolled out a new tool, allowing users to download maps featuring their own custom names for the international boundary water.
For many Southern Californians, the news was less about Mapquest's political stand and more about the discovery that Mapquest still exists. The company, a pioneer in online directions, was acquired in 2019 by System1, an advertising platform based right here in Marina del Rey. Before the era of smartphones and widespread GPS, Mapquest.com, launched in 1996, was the go-to for printing out turn-by-turn directions before hitting the road.
America Online purchased Mapquest in December 1999 for $1.1 billion, a sum roughly equivalent to $2.2 billion today. However, the site gradually lost its dominance to competitors over the subsequent decade. Its ownership eventually transferred to Verizon in 2015 after that company's acquisition of AOL. Four years later, Verizon sold Mapquest to System1 for a price so modest that, Business Insider reported, Verizon did not file public paperwork to record the transaction.
Despite its quiet profile in recent years, Mapquest's response to the Trump administration's renaming efforts has garnered it fresh attention. General manager Doug Berger told The Times on Sunday that the company has seen “hundreds of thousands” of new downloads since the “Lake America” announcement.
It's worth noting that cartography enthusiasts have pointed out that a U.S. president does not have the authority to unilaterally rename the Great Lakes. These waters have been governed by a joint U.S.-Canada commission for over a century. A president’s naming power applies only to federal maps and agencies; other nations and private map providers, like our local Mapquest, are not obligated to adopt such changes.