MapQuest Sticks With Lake Ontario, Sees Surge in App Downloads
President Trump's decision to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America has sparked a bit of resurgence for MapQuest, the old-school mapping service some may have assumed was dead.
Launched in 1996, MapQuest says it's now seeing a flood of new app downloads after the online mapping service refused to follow Trump's executive order and strip the name Lake Ontario from its maps. In the US, MapQuest now ranks number one in free navigation apps on Apple's App Store and Google Play .
"Hundreds of thousands of downloads push usage to 50 times its normal rate as users embrace the brand's decision to keep familiar lake and gulf names," MapQuest said on Monday. "It is the highest chart position in the brand's 30-year history."
App-tracking platform SensorTower also notes that MapQuest ranked 80th in free navigation apps for iOS in the US market just a week ago. In Canada, the app's ranking was even lower and didn't crack the top 150. But the mapping app has since shot up in the rankings for both markets, reaching No. 1 on Sunday.
Some of the interest may also have come after Google Maps updated the name to Lake America for US users, as it follows the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
"Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the US, people using Maps in the US will see 'Lake America,' those in Canada will continue to see 'Lake Ontario,' and those outside of the US and Canada will see both names," the company said . (Last year, Google and Apple did the same for the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump renamed the Gulf of America.)
Google's decision sparked backlash from internet users on social media, especially those opposed to Trump. The controversy has also prompted some to encourage users to download MapQuest. "We may have abandoned MapQuest, but MapQuest hasn't abandoned us," wrote one user on Reddit.
Apple hasn't said what it will do in Apple Maps; the app still showed Lake Ontario as of Monday morning. However, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Trump "reached out to Apple directly" to get it changed, Reuters reports .
In the meantime, MapQuest has been active on X, posting provocative tweets to capitalize on the controversy. On Sunday, the mapping service also said it's working on Android Auto support.
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