Microsoft Weighs in on the Gulf of America vs. Gulf of Mexico Debate

Have you ever found yourself wondering whether it’s the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of America? Well, the answer might change depending on who you ask. The debate over this famous body of water’s name doesn’t just stir up political discussions—it even divides our trusty map services. Lately, if you pull up Google or Apple Maps, you might spot it labeled as the “Gulf of America.”

This whole name-change saga began when President Donald Trump floated the idea to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Alongside this proposal, he fancied renaming Mount Denali and even had some ambitious thoughts about annexing Canada, bringing Greenland into the U.S., and reclaiming the Panama Canal. While those are equally intriguing, let’s stick to our spirited cartographical debate for now.

Since then, Trump has officially dubbed it the Gulf of America, even marking February 9 as Gulf of America Day. “In our journey to revive the American pride rooted in our historic greatness, it makes perfect sense for this nation to unite in celebrating this landmark event and the rechristening of the Gulf of America,” proclaimed President Trump.

Now, whether Gulf of America Day will pop up on Google Calendar is anyone’s guess. Notably, Google recently removed events like Pride Month, Black History Month, and Women’s History Month from its calendar. They cited the challenge of managing hundreds of events consistently on a global scale. So, adding the Gulf of America Day might not exactly make it onto Google’s manageable priorities.

Interestingly, at the time of writing, if you check out Bing Maps, you’ll still see “Gulf of Mexico.” Microsoft’s decision not to use Gulf of America could either be a subtle political stance or possibly just a reflection of how often they update their data. I’ve reached out to Microsoft to see if they have any thoughts on this name debate or how their updates work.

Speaking of Bing Maps, how exactly do they get their data? Well, according to a blog post from way back in 2020, Bing Maps sources information from a variety of providers. This strategy allows the service to continually evolve and improve user experience. At one point, integrating TomTom’s map and traffic data was part of this evolution, though I’m still hunting for any updates on how that integration panned out.