MapQuest took on President Donald Trump and now its app is reaping the rewards. The “OG of online mapping,” as the company is called, announced Thursday that it would not change the name of Lake Ontario on its maps to Lake America, despite Trump’s executive order directing the U.S. Department of the Interior to update the lake’s name in the U.S. Geographic Naming Service. As a result, MapQuest mobile app downloads skyrocketed, sending the iOS app to the No. 4 position on the U.S. App Store’s top app charts (not including games). As of Monday morning on the US East Coast, MapQuest also reached the No. 8 position overall on the US App Store in both apps and games, and became the No. 1 navigation app in the United States. On Canada’s App Store, the app peaked at No. 2 overall as of Sunday night. The 30-year-old company said it received “hundreds of thousands” of new downloads since its decision to keep the Lake Ontario name, and saw usage of its app increase 50 times above its normal levels. Third-party data from market intelligence provider Sensor Tower confirms the increase, noting that MapQuest recorded 184,000 and 162,000 total app downloads worldwide and in the US, respectively, during the week beginning August 24, each representing a more than 10x week-over-week increase. In the US, daily downloads increased 128% day over day between August 26 and 30. “We took the same approach we did with the Gulf of Mexico: be part of the conversation and give people an app that keeps the names they know,” said Doug Berger, general manager of MapQuest, in a statement. “Hundreds of thousands of people told us this weekend that we did a good job by downloading our app.” MapQuest also launched an online tool that allows you to playfully rename Lake Ontario and then share the results on social media. The company had offered a similar tool last year, after Trump changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Trump’s decision to change the name of the body of water bordering the United States and Canada comes as trade talks collapsed, leading the United States to impose new 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, with Canada poised to retaliate. On Saturday, Google Maps announced that it was complying with Trump’s decision, explaining that it updates Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources. In the United States, that is the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). The updated map will only be shown to users in the US, while those in Canada will see Lake Ontario and those outside of the two countries will see both names. Both Apple Maps and Google Maps renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America last year, after Trump issued a similar name change executive order. As of Monday morning, Apple Maps had not yet changed the name of the Great Lake to Lake America and had not issued a statement about its plans. MapQuest has changed hands several times over the years and was acquired by AOL shortly after going public. He then ended up with Verizon for a time, as a result of Verizon’s acquisition of AOL. In 2019, Verizon sold MapQuest to internet advertising company System1. The MapQuest app has been downloaded 687,000 times worldwide this year so far, up 29% year over year, Sensor Tower estimated. Since 2012, MapQuest has been downloaded 24.4 million times, with 97% of those installs coming from the United States. When you buy through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
