Remember the complaints about Google listing Taiwan as a province of China? Well, believe it or not, Taiwan has got its way. Not only has it convinced Google to drop the ‘Province of China’ bit, it also seems it has convinced google that the whole concept of political names is more hassle than it’s worth:

Defusing a dispute with technology powerhouse Taiwan, Google has changed its global map service to take the politics out of its geography.

A previous version of Google Maps displayed the text “Taiwan, Province of China” next to a map of the island. But on Monday, a search returned only a map of the island, simply labeled “Taiwan.”

Google spokeswoman Debbie Frost confirmed the shift, saying it reflected a broad change in what Google users see when any map is viewed.

Update: Perhaps the Taiwanese expats who picketed Google’s main offices the day after Google changed their site to remove the offending words should have checked Google before setting out on their demonstration. Oops.