Google.ps, the website formerly known as "Google Palestinian Territories," was re-christened "Google Palestine" on Wednesday. Israel has opposed international recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

"This change raises questions about the reasons behind this surprising involvement of what is basically a private internet company in international politics—and on the controversial side," a spokesman for the Israeli government told Agence France-Presse.

"We're changing the name 'Palestinian Territories' to 'Palestine' across our products," a Google spokesman told the BBC on Friday. "We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries."

Other authorities recognizing the "Palestine" label include the United Nations, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and the International Standards Organization. The UN upgraded Palestine to a "non-member observer state" in November. Previously it had been a mere "non-member observer entity."

An advisor to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas praised Google's move as a "step in the right direction."

This is not the first time Google has had to make controversial judgment calls about the names and legal status of disputed territories. In 2010, the Mountain View company was drawn into a border dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua after people noticed that Google and Bing had drawn the line between the two nations differently. Earlier the same year, Google was blasted by Cambodia for what that nation considered a "radically misleading" border between Cambodia and Thailand.

Wikipedia, too, has been embroiled in political naming disputes. Between 2001 and 2005, readers fought a bitter edit war over the title of the article about the city in Poland that Polish speakers call "Gdańsk" and German speakers refer to as "Danzig." The dispute was eventually resolved by senior Wikipedia administrators in favor of "Gdańsk."