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Comment by kraig911 | Hacker News Reader

Curious is the representation of a lot of religions but not a cross present?

This can be interpreted in a different way: the default house of worship in the US is Christian, and so only the counterexamples need their own symbols.

I saw that. Quite odd. Do they not have the data to be able to say definitively, "This is a Christian house of worship"? Seems unlikely?

To me more telling was the swastika is there but not a cross.

at some point, the maps UX team explained how it's not right to show a church with a cross on top for all places of worship. Thus it was removed. IIRC some time later, icons for more religions were added, but the default stayed as it is. Assuming https://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/06/the_odd_body_religi... is still valid, Christianity has as many "members" as two next biggest religions combined, so it's funny/sad it doesn't get the symbol.

It just seems so calculated too. I mean use a fish or something if you're afraid of a connotation.

The reason you're seeing such a variation is because the icons are based on per-country map conventions. They have different icons for use in different areas, for example there are some specifically for Japan. Christianity is covered in the generic "Church or temple" icon, but people in other countries with other major religions wouldn't recognize that iconography. The point is probably to be open to other religions in the West, while also considering the breadth in other countries.

So in, for example, Muslim-majority countries, the few Christian churches will appear as generic place of worship.

Not to mention that the symbol used looks a lot like a mosque. Domed roof with "towers" on either side.

Yep. Very telling.

I'm surprised more ignorant folks aren't outraged at Buddhist temples being a "hate symbol"

That symbol's history far predates its quite recent re-definition as a hate symbol in the western world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika (a wee bit of emphasis added below):

> The swastika is an ancient religious icon used in the Indian subcontinent, East Asia and Southeast Asia, where it has been and remains a sacred symbol of spiritual principles in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. In the Western world, it was historically a symbol of auspiciousness and good luck,[5] but in the 1930s, it became the main feature of Nazi symbolism as an emblem of Aryan race identity, and as a result, it has become stigmatized in the West by association with ideas of racism, hatred, and mass murder.

> Some of the earliest archaeological evidence of the swastika in the Indian subcontinent can be dated to 3,000 BCE.

3000 BCE by far predates the last ~85-90 years of its redefinition.

Yes. That's exactly your comment parent's point.

I wonder if it's going to show up in google maps in Germany.

Ugh, just hope it doesn't spark another "war against christianity" thing

It will probably will. It's too bad too because this is one of those things that's easy to rectify.

So if they don't rectify it, it's because there's intent.

Not sure. Just saying it's easy to add a cross and be truly and not leave the question of bias out there. This is becoming a mountain out of a molehill thing though. I just don't want Google villified by you know whos.

I'm a Christian and I feel this is a cheap shot. I believe this to be malicious, especially coming from Google. Could even be some kind of inside joke.

I'm a Christian and I just feel this came from a team that didn't have much in the way of a Christian on their team. That said we as Christians aren't faring well at being represented at all at most tech companies. Even moreso I bet at google but that's just me assuming. I fear the worst but assume the best of google about this. It's really a small detail.

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