Google determines the names for bodies of water in Google Earth (2008)

Google Earth labels disputed bodies of water using a policy called Primary Local Usage, showing the primary, common name used by each bordering sovereign nation. When countries agree on a name, only that name appears, as with the 'Caribbean Sea'. When they disagree, both names are shown, placed closer to the country that uses each one, and a clickable text box gives more detail, as with the 'Yellow Sea' versus 'West Sea' example. Non-English clients show only the local preferred name, like 'Sea of Japan' in Japanese and 'East Sea' in Korean, but still list both names in the annotation. Google says it rejected deferring to the UN Cartographic Section, the IHO, national geographic societies, or academic surveys because it considered each option and found problems with them, such as limited coverage, scope and membership gaps, politicization, and bias.

Source: https://publicpolicy.googleblog.com/2008/04/how-google-determines-names-for-bodies.html. 8 Sync News only summarizes and links out; content copyright belongs to the authors and original sources.