"Most pointless thing ever" — Netizens react to Google Maps agreeing to replace 'Gulf of Mexico' with 'Gulf of America' for US users

A new change was agreed upon by Google Maps for US residents earlier this week, where the name of the Gulf of Mexico will be replaced with 'Gulf of America'. The change was brought forth after Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring the same on his return to the Presidential office.

On Tuesday, January 28, @people tweeted about the news, which has since gone viral, receiving over 58K views within hours. Netizens are reacting to it, with one of them commenting:

"Most pointless thing ever."

Some X users called the change "a waste of time and money," pointing it that the US economy needed more attention than the name change.

"That is such a waste of time and money. Shouldn’t the administration focus on the economy?," commented one person.

"We are the dumbest country on the planet," wrote another person.

"Is there an option to set it BACK to Gulf of Mexico, if we don't wanna change it?" another netizen said.

Meanwhile, others pointed out the futility of such a change. Some of them even claimed that the changes were being made to prevent monetary losses at the hands of the government.

"What difference will that make,if it was the Gulf of Mexico it should stay that way, what would the name changing do? We barely get along as it is and you think American people care about changing some name? We have more important issues to be concerned about," one person commented.

"They are all sycophants. It's all about the bottom line so they're afraid to lose money, and they will suck it up even to the devil," another person added.

"Who needs directions to the Gulf of Mexico," commented another person.

The tweet is grabbing netizens' attention after Google announced the changing of the Gulf of Mexico's name as part of its new update on Monday, January 27, on X. Another change that will be visible on the maps application is of Denali in Alaska, which will be called "Mount McKinley".

As per Google, if official names vary between countries, map users in the US would see their official local name, while people in other countries would see both names.

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The Mexican President stated that the name of the Gulf of Mexico would not change for them

While Google might have accepted the changes brought forward with one of Trump's executive orders last week, President Claudia Sheinbaum doesn't recognize them. Sheinbaum, Mexico's President, told the Associated Press last week:

"He says that he will call it the 'Gulf of America' on its continental shelf. For us it is still the Gulf of Mexico and for the entire world it is still the Gulf of Mexico."

The second name change to come into effect is Mount Denali. The Alaskan mountain peak, which also happens to be the highest mountain peak in all of North America - was initially named Mount McKinley. Then in 2015, Barack Obama changed its name to "Mount Denail" after he joined office for a second time.

Ten years later, Trump has ordered that the name be reversed to its original one.

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The renaming order comes with a long list of other executive orders that Trump signed soon after joining the office for his second term of presidency. One of those orders, per CBS News report on January 28, was directing the Pentagon to determine a policy for transgender service members based on readiness within 30 days.

It doesn't lead to a direct ban on transgender service members. However, it does point out that the Defense Department's policy for troop readiness is "inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria."