• it/its

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Basically somebody got fed up with lat/long coordinates because a string of random numbers is too hard to remember. What if, instead, somebody supposed, we could create a much more human friendly system of geolocation?

So they did. It's called What3Words, and what they did was divide the entire globe up into 3x3 meter squares and assigned each one a string of three random1 English words. These three words should, in theory, be much easier to remember.

As an example. My old college dorm was located at 47.11591, -88.540342. The corresponding w3w for that location is hillsides.standstill.known. Which would you rather give out to your drunk friend?

But! I hear you say. Couldn't you just tell me that the building is located at 1801 Townsend Dr?

Well, yes. And for a vast majority of use cases, an address is better. For one, addresses aren't random. I know I don't need to look for a house number until I'm on the right street. And if I'm looking for 1801 Townsend Dr and the numbers are around 1500 and getting smaller, I need to turn around.

However, there are a couple of interesting use cases. For example, if I'm at a large venue like a concert or sporting event and I want to meet up with my friends, I can pinpoint which door I'm at and give them the w3w code2 so we don't have to rely on unfamiliar landmarks.

Similarly, if I'm in a location that doesn't have an address, like any one of the numerous parks around here, I can more easily mark points of interest.

W3W has been around for about 10 years now, and as you can tell from it's absolute failure to catch on, well, it hasn't really caught on. They have an app and a website, which, disclaimer, I've never really used so I can't speak to its navigational quality, and those are kinda neat to poke around with. The app prompts you to make an account but doesn't require it, which is good because I have to imagine they're selling ALL kinds of data.

It was in the news recently though, as some lost hikers used it to give their position to emergency services for rescue. So that's something. I could see it being fun for geocaching too, with people trying to locate their caches in locations with a fun name.

My personal opinion is that it's just not really necessary, at least not in its current form. It's not like we're unused to reciting strings of numbers should it be necessary, and in a world where people communicate less and less by phone and more by text, the supposed benefit doesn't really exist either.

The inherent randomness is a problem for me too. Once you've committed to using their system, you are locked into their system. In a lot of US cities and towns, the streets are numbered (Manhattan probably being the most famous example). If you know where you are and where you're going, you can get some idea of how to get there or how long it will take.

To cite another example from my youth, the rural roads were numbered every 1/8th of a mile, with the major roads being named after the US Presidents in order of inauguration. If I wanted to get from an address on Grant St to an address on Van Buren St, I knew I had to go south for 20 minutes, give or take.

If I wanted to get from stolen.hides.listeners to slurping.resolved.claimed I have nothing to go on at all, unless I use their app to decode that.

This could be improved with some attempt at making the words hierarchical in any way, but they didn't do that.

Anyway, I'm out of stuff to say about this. If you're interested in playing with it, the website is here


  1. I remember reading an article about this a long time ago that suggested the creators had intentionally put some unflattering "random" words in places like the Vatican and Buckingham Palace, but I can't find the article now.

  2. Provided your friends also have the app.


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