I absolutely hate those codes. They are basically useless unless you are using Google Maps, and I hate seeing them in google maps because they tend to be more noticeable than the address - which...
I absolutely hate those codes. They are basically useless unless you are using Google Maps, and I hate seeing them in google maps because they tend to be more noticeable than the address - which is what I am usually trying to find if I am using Google Maps.
That being said, I understand how they can be useful. If my memory serves me correctly, Japanese address are somewhat crazy as well. Basically, since their address system is older than city planning, they have addresses based on subdivisions of land. Some areas don't even use the same addressing system! Wikipedia article
Really? 100 Market Street, Sydney = 25 characters shut.torch.dinner = 17 characters Another reference for the same address is enhancement.rested.garden, which is also 25 characters. That doesn't...
Street addresses are also incredibly long and difficult to type, as well as being exceedingly unreliable.
Really?
100 Market Street, Sydney = 25 characters
shut.torch.dinner = 17 characters
Another reference for the same address is enhancement.rested.garden, which is also 25 characters.
That doesn't seem like a huge difference. And the street address has the advantage of connecting to something in real life. Someone living in Sydney will know where Market Street is, but "shut.torch.dinner" has no context whatsoever.
Want to get to the airport? Head to nobody.cunning.friction.
Or terribly.slipped.below, or magpie.visit.shirt, or stumps.mailbox.minus, or eternity.outwit.flaking, or demoted.visited.defeated... or any of thousands of other references. They talk about removing ambiguity, but each address has multiple references.
S. Turkmenbashi Ave., 83, Aşgabat 744000, Turkmenistan Here? I didn't copy-paste. I manually typed this: "s. turkmenbashi ave, 83 asbagat 744000" Shop 1024A Market St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia...
try this:
S. Turkmenbashi Ave., 83, Aşgabat 744000, Turkmenistan
I didn't copy-paste. I manually typed this: "s. turkmenbashi ave, 83 asbagat 744000"
Hell, even just trying to locate one of the stores in the building your address links to is a nightmare to type:
Shop 1024A Market St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Sure. However, you've just reminded me of something: we're missing a third dimension! Street addresses can include an indicator for what floor in the building an apartment or shop or office is on. It might be explicit, like "1st floor", or it might be built into the numbering, like "Apartment 102" (the 2nd apartment on the 1st floor) or "Shop "1024" (Shop 24 on the 1st floor).
Here's another random thought. How would I know if I've arrived at the location nobody.cunning.friction (or if my remote-controlled drone has arrived there)? What's the point of reference to say I am standing in the three-metre square called nobody.cunning.friction and not in the neighbouring square called operating.labs.bracing? Turns out it's GPS: "The what3words algorithm takes complex GPS coordinates and converts them into unique 3 word addresses." All they're doing is putting mnemonic labels on GPS coordinates. It's a GPS app. We've got plenty of those.
Good point. I will concede that these three-word addresses are easy to remember. Even as I've been conducting this discussion with you, I've noticed that the addresses I read on their website will...
just like we have IP addresses for websites, but you don't use that system to connect to a website, you use a domain name,
Good point.
I will concede that these three-word addresses are easy to remember. Even as I've been conducting this discussion with you, I've noticed that the addresses I read on their website will stick in my memory when I'm typing my replies to you. So, the mnemonic aspect of this gimmick is useful. But it still feels gimmicky, somehow.
Interesting! (Only watched a few snippets of the video, sorry.) I've heard similar complaints about street addresses in Japan being difficult to find. I'm sure it's hard to convince people to...
Interesting! (Only watched a few snippets of the video, sorry.) I've heard similar complaints about street addresses in Japan being difficult to find. I'm sure it's hard to convince people to switch to/add a new system, if they can even agree on which system to adopt.
I learned, through typoing /u/hungariantoast's nobody.cunning.friction a few times, that if you are off by even a single letter (Levenshtein distance == 1), you end up in a drastically different...
I learned, through typoing /u/hungariantoast's nobody.cunning.friction a few times, that if you are off by even a single letter (Levenshtein distance == 1), you end up in a drastically different location. And, because of how Earth's surface is mostly water, you are more likely to end up in a large body of water than where you expected. You could be sending someone directions to the middle of the ocean if you're not careful. Or someone misinterpreting your three word code might try to deliver your pizza there. And, since it's word-based where typos can obscure the intended address in far more ways than simply typoing a street number / name (without the expertise of the local population to serve as a fallback corrective measure), it's far harder to build in error correction.
Like Google's system, it's terribly easy for humans to screw up. The irony here is that this system is designed to prevent such failures.
Is "long-lived novelty" an option? :) This is familiar to me. I stumbled across this a couple of years ago. And it's no more popular now than it was then. Noone has tried to give me their address...
What do you think: revolutionary, or a short-lived novelty?
Is "long-lived novelty" an option? :)
This is familiar to me. I stumbled across this a couple of years ago. And it's no more popular now than it was then. Noone has tried to give me their address using three words. No business is listing a 3-word address on their website. It's not taking off. Probably because it's a solution without a problem.
It means anyone can accurately find any location and share it more quickly, easily and with less ambiguity than any other system.
It's like they've never heard of longitude and latitude! Or street numbers!
Whether it’s helping customers find your business more easily, arranging a meet-up, finding your hotel or sharing the location of a wedding – 3 word addresses are the easiest way to talk about any location, anywhere on the planet, in over 26 languages.
Each named location is a 3-metre square. The average shop or office or cafe or hotel is larger than 9m2. Therefore, there'll be multiple 3-metre squares mapped on to a given building (I've just checked the address I work at, and it seems to contain between 50 and 100 of these 3-metre squares). Which one do you give out to people?
And, speaking of mapping locations on to buildings, their map does not have buildings or street addresses (hence my inability to accurately identify how many 3-metre squares map on to the building I work in). There's no easy way to see whether a given 3-word location is mapped on to your building, or on to the building next door, or an empty space between buildings.
This is a solution in search of a problem. It's a gimmick.
In the developed world it is, to some extent. But the developed world is far from the whole world. There's a reason Mongolia, Tuvalu, and a few other countries use it as their official postal...
it's a solution without a problem.
In the developed world it is, to some extent. But the developed world is far from the whole world. There's a reason Mongolia, Tuvalu, and a few other countries use it as their official postal system - they have the problem it solves, that of unreliable and inconsistent addressing systems. Here in the UK, my address, and almost any address, can be rendered as an 8 character string (and yes, you can address a letter just using that string) but in the developing world addresses often don't exist. "The small house with the blue door just past the big tree around the corner from Steve's house" is a legit address when the only people who need to find you are people in your village and the occasional in-person visitor, but it doesn't work when you need to post things around a country.
Not only is it a mildly interesting gimmick at best, the problem that stood out to me when I first saw it years ago is that it's a proprietary gimmick. Without the exact algorithm and...
Not only is it a mildly interesting gimmick at best, the problem that stood out to me when I first saw it years ago is that it's a proprietary gimmick.
Without the exact algorithm and word-database used to convert between GPS and word-triples, the system is useless. Anyone can build a receiver to infer GPS coordinates from freely available satellite broadcasts, but with this thing you need to use their online service or else contact their sales team to get access to an offline mobile version.
If the goal is actually to help under-developed regions with mapping and navigation capabilities, we're much better off taking advantage of open, freely available standards like GPS and OpenStreetMap than locking everyone into the use of an expensive proprietary gimmick.
Their "News" section has some articles (which I haven't read) about various businesses (car companies, Airbnb, etc.) using what3words, but I don't know if it will really prove useful. If I click...
Their "News" section has some articles (which I haven't read) about various businesses (car companies, Airbnb, etc.) using what3words, but I don't know if it will really prove useful. If I click on satellite view and zoom in I can see that my building takes up six squares. I agree that it's not very meaningful if I switch word codes just by going to the next room.
Seems an interesting concept, though l would prefer something not using words since it doesn't work well across languages. It also does not say what house number you should be looking for when...
Seems an interesting concept, though l would prefer something not using words since it doesn't work well across languages. It also does not say what house number you should be looking for when navigating, and it seems easy to mix up word order / words themselves. Cool concept but l think it's more novelty than usefulness.
Then what's the difference between this and good 'ol coordinates? (okay, 3 numbers is probably way less decimal numbers, so it might be a little easier to remember).
about the only remotely readable alternative is numbers
Then what's the difference between this and good 'ol coordinates? (okay, 3 numbers is probably way less decimal numbers, so it might be a little easier to remember).
This is pretty cool, and seems like a useful way of sharing location data when it has to be manually input. So maybe for things like geocaching. But otherwise to use the service you're likely...
This is pretty cool, and seems like a useful way of sharing location data when it has to be manually input. So maybe for things like geocaching. But otherwise to use the service you're likely going to be using a device that could already define and share your location.
I think it would be more useful if each word added a level of precision. Maybe the first word identifies an area the size of a small county while adding the second one reduces that to the size of a small city and so on. Then maybe it could be used to to talk to people you only somewhat trust like online by only giving them the first or second word.
How would that be different from the existing method of using countries, states/provinces/counties, cities, suburbs, and streets?
I think it would be more useful if each word added a level of precision. Maybe the first word identifies an area the size of a small county while adding the second one reduces that to the size of a small city and so on.
How would that be different from the existing method of using countries, states/provinces/counties, cities, suburbs, and streets?
The main difference is it applies everywhere, even where there might not be cities or streets. The change isn't much significant beyond that, but I think it's more useful than two squares being...
The main difference is it applies everywhere, even where there might not be cities or streets. The change isn't much significant beyond that, but I think it's more useful than two squares being next to each other and not being similar in any way.
"what3words is a really simple way to talk about location. We have divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3 word address. It means anyone can accurately...
"what3words is a really simple way to talk about location. We have divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3 word address. It means anyone can accurately find any location and share it more quickly, easily and with less ambiguity than any other system."
I learned about this recently while watching QI, and raced to find the three words that indicated where I was sitting at the time. (Of course it would be fun to compare our wacky word combos, but that gives away your exact location, so be wary.) What do you think: revolutionary, or a short-lived novelty?
I really like using this for times when I've parked my car in a massive parking lot, or maybe in a large field. This three word technique has worked for me, although typically GPS works just as...
I really like using this for times when I've parked my car in a massive parking lot, or maybe in a large field. This three word technique has worked for me, although typically GPS works just as well. It's easier to give someone three words than it is to give them latitude & longitude coordinates, though.
I absolutely hate those codes. They are basically useless unless you are using Google Maps, and I hate seeing them in google maps because they tend to be more noticeable than the address - which is what I am usually trying to find if I am using Google Maps.
That being said, I understand how they can be useful. If my memory serves me correctly, Japanese address are somewhat crazy as well. Basically, since their address system is older than city planning, they have addresses based on subdivisions of land. Some areas don't even use the same addressing system! Wikipedia article
Really?
100 Market Street, Sydney = 25 characters
shut.torch.dinner= 17 charactersAnother reference for the same address is
enhancement.rested.garden, which is also 25 characters.That doesn't seem like a huge difference. And the street address has the advantage of connecting to something in real life. Someone living in Sydney will know where Market Street is, but "shut.torch.dinner" has no context whatsoever.
Or
terribly.slipped.below, ormagpie.visit.shirt, orstumps.mailbox.minus, oreternity.outwit.flaking, ordemoted.visited.defeated... or any of thousands of other references. They talk about removing ambiguity, but each address has multiple references.S. Turkmenbashi Ave., 83, Aşgabat 744000, Turkmenistan
Here?
I didn't copy-paste. I manually typed this: "s. turkmenbashi ave, 83 asbagat 744000"
Shop 1024A Market St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Sure. However, you've just reminded me of something: we're missing a third dimension! Street addresses can include an indicator for what floor in the building an apartment or shop or office is on. It might be explicit, like "1st floor", or it might be built into the numbering, like "Apartment 102" (the 2nd apartment on the 1st floor) or "Shop "1024" (Shop 24 on the 1st floor).
Here's another random thought. How would I know if I've arrived at the location
nobody.cunning.friction(or if my remote-controlled drone has arrived there)? What's the point of reference to say I am standing in the three-metre square callednobody.cunning.frictionand not in the neighbouring square calledoperating.labs.bracing? Turns out it's GPS: "The what3words algorithm takes complex GPS coordinates and converts them into unique 3 word addresses." All they're doing is putting mnemonic labels on GPS coordinates. It's a GPS app. We've got plenty of those.Good point.
I will concede that these three-word addresses are easy to remember. Even as I've been conducting this discussion with you, I've noticed that the addresses I read on their website will stick in my memory when I'm typing my replies to you. So, the mnemonic aspect of this gimmick is useful. But it still feels gimmicky, somehow.
Interesting! (Only watched a few snippets of the video, sorry.) I've heard similar complaints about street addresses in Japan being difficult to find. I'm sure it's hard to convince people to switch to/add a new system, if they can even agree on which system to adopt.
I learned, through typoing /u/hungariantoast's nobody.cunning.friction a few times, that if you are off by even a single letter (Levenshtein distance == 1), you end up in a drastically different location. And, because of how Earth's surface is mostly water, you are more likely to end up in a large body of water than where you expected. You could be sending someone directions to the middle of the ocean if you're not careful. Or someone misinterpreting your three word code might try to deliver your pizza there. And, since it's word-based where typos can obscure the intended address in far more ways than simply typoing a street number / name (without the expertise of the local population to serve as a fallback corrective measure), it's far harder to build in error correction.
Like Google's system, it's terribly easy for humans to screw up. The irony here is that this system is designed to prevent such failures.
Is "long-lived novelty" an option? :)
This is familiar to me. I stumbled across this a couple of years ago. And it's no more popular now than it was then. Noone has tried to give me their address using three words. No business is listing a 3-word address on their website. It's not taking off. Probably because it's a solution without a problem.
It's like they've never heard of longitude and latitude! Or street numbers!
Each named location is a 3-metre square. The average shop or office or cafe or hotel is larger than 9m2. Therefore, there'll be multiple 3-metre squares mapped on to a given building (I've just checked the address I work at, and it seems to contain between 50 and 100 of these 3-metre squares). Which one do you give out to people?
And, speaking of mapping locations on to buildings, their map does not have buildings or street addresses (hence my inability to accurately identify how many 3-metre squares map on to the building I work in). There's no easy way to see whether a given 3-word location is mapped on to your building, or on to the building next door, or an empty space between buildings.
This is a solution in search of a problem. It's a gimmick.
In the developed world it is, to some extent. But the developed world is far from the whole world. There's a reason Mongolia, Tuvalu, and a few other countries use it as their official postal system - they have the problem it solves, that of unreliable and inconsistent addressing systems. Here in the UK, my address, and almost any address, can be rendered as an 8 character string (and yes, you can address a letter just using that string) but in the developing world addresses often don't exist. "The small house with the blue door just past the big tree around the corner from Steve's house" is a legit address when the only people who need to find you are people in your village and the occasional in-person visitor, but it doesn't work when you need to post things around a country.
W3W claim 75% of countries don't have reliable addressing systems. I have no idea how true that is or isn't but it wouldn't surprise me if it were. Here's a list of just the postal services using W3W
Not only is it a mildly interesting gimmick at best, the problem that stood out to me when I first saw it years ago is that it's a proprietary gimmick.
Without the exact algorithm and word-database used to convert between GPS and word-triples, the system is useless. Anyone can build a receiver to infer GPS coordinates from freely available satellite broadcasts, but with this thing you need to use their online service or else contact their sales team to get access to an offline mobile version.
If the goal is actually to help under-developed regions with mapping and navigation capabilities, we're much better off taking advantage of open, freely available standards like GPS and OpenStreetMap than locking everyone into the use of an expensive proprietary gimmick.
Their "News" section has some articles (which I haven't read) about various businesses (car companies, Airbnb, etc.) using what3words, but I don't know if it will really prove useful. If I click on satellite view and zoom in I can see that my building takes up six squares. I agree that it's not very meaningful if I switch word codes just by going to the next room.
Seems an interesting concept, though l would prefer something not using words since it doesn't work well across languages. It also does not say what house number you should be looking for when navigating, and it seems easy to mix up word order / words themselves. Cool concept but l think it's more novelty than usefulness.
Then what's the difference between this and good 'ol coordinates? (okay, 3 numbers is probably way less decimal numbers, so it might be a little easier to remember).
To help our fictional mathematician, it was mentioned in QI that you only need 40,000 words to cover those 57 trillion squares.
You can do it with two 5 digit and one 4 digit number, or one 5 digit and two 4 digit numbers if you decrease the resolution to 9x9 meters.
This is pretty cool, and seems like a useful way of sharing location data when it has to be manually input. So maybe for things like geocaching. But otherwise to use the service you're likely going to be using a device that could already define and share your location.
I think it would be more useful if each word added a level of precision. Maybe the first word identifies an area the size of a small county while adding the second one reduces that to the size of a small city and so on. Then maybe it could be used to to talk to people you only somewhat trust like online by only giving them the first or second word.
How would that be different from the existing method of using countries, states/provinces/counties, cities, suburbs, and streets?
The main difference is it applies everywhere, even where there might not be cities or streets. The change isn't much significant beyond that, but I think it's more useful than two squares being next to each other and not being similar in any way.
"what3words is a really simple way to talk about location. We have divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3 word address. It means anyone can accurately find any location and share it more quickly, easily and with less ambiguity than any other system."
I learned about this recently while watching QI, and raced to find the three words that indicated where I was sitting at the time. (Of course it would be fun to compare our wacky word combos, but that gives away your exact location, so be wary.) What do you think: revolutionary, or a short-lived novelty?
I really like using this for times when I've parked my car in a massive parking lot, or maybe in a large field. This three word technique has worked for me, although typically GPS works just as well. It's easier to give someone three words than it is to give them latitude & longitude coordinates, though.