What.Three.Words

[NotoriousREV]

Is your toilet address in any way amusing?

[Jobbo]

I think I can identify each rabbit hole in the garden by its own W3W address. Which will be useful when the rabbits get smartphones.

[tim]

not especially, sadly.

[JLv3.0]

I love the idea frankly. Bollocks to numbers - we all know they reach their limitation whenever accuracy is required.

But let's go one better - how about representing locational data via a particular shade of colour, a certain odour or perhaps a one-second clip of someone humming a certain note? Far easier than stupid coordinates.

[mik]

It is indeed a genius idea.

I know when I go to France, Italy or whatever they all want to use English for everything instead of their own silly languages.

[GG.]

How about "Fuck. Right. Off"? Those three words should do it.

[Jobbo]

It is indeed a genius idea.

I know when I go to France, Italy or whatever they all want to use English for everything instead of their own silly languages.

Each location also has a three word address in other languages (except the sea, I think) - but not a direct translation of the three words. No, that would be too sensible. So wheat.tree.words becomes chauffeuse.prôner.mouchant in French. Meaning you need to go back to the app just to work out which combinations of three words in different languages are actually the same place. Really intuitive and helpful.

[GG.]

I'm impressed with how much time they've wasted in developing this.

[mik]

It is indeed a genius idea.

I know when I go to France, Italy or whatever they all want to use English for everything instead of their own silly languages.

Each location also has a three word address in other languages (except the sea, I think) - but not a direct translation of the three words. No, that would be too sensible. So wheat.tree.words becomes chauffeuse.prôner.mouchant in French. Meaning you need to go back to the app just to work out which combinations of three words in different languages are actually the same place. Really intuitive and helpful.

Mais bien sûr

[Mito Man]

I'm impressed with how much time they've wasted in developing this.

It sounds like not much time at all. Simple algorithm to divide the world into 1 metre squares and then associate 3 random words with each square. Sell idea. Profit. And they’ve probably done quite well if it’s got the backing of Mercedes and the latest tech investor extrodinaire Nico Rosberg.

[Jobbo]

Do you mean main.biner.suer, muer.biner.suer or mail.biner.suer, eh?

[ste]

I did some work on this with the MoD and with the VOA (Valuation Office).

Traditional postcode addresses are much more problematic and less accurate then you're all assuming, especially when defining hereditaments. Traditional addresses are really bad at identifying multi-occupancy dwellings with more than one entry point and for non-domestic property, especially multi-occupancy and also non-domestic features like fields, bridges and advertising hoardings.

And it does work in 3 dimensions, just not accesible to the public yet.

[Jobbo]

A field is going to require a heck of a lot of three word identifiers if they stick to 3m x 3m squares.

The VOA is going to have just as much of a problem identifying hereditaments using this system as they do currently, since things like ATMs and advertising hoardings are themselves hereditaments and yet smaller (in at least one dimension) in plan view than the 3m square so overlapping others.

[ste]

Why would you need more than one W3W to define a field? You pick one of them and the field is then identified.

If you had access to the database of official addresses for things like fields you'd be surprised. They are inconsistent and identified by local convention. It wouldn't be unusual to see something like:

Field on left
After Post Office
[Postcode]

Then the post-office closes and 'on left' is if you're travelling in which direction?

[ste]

The VOA is going to have just as much of a problem identifying hereditaments using this system as they do currently, since things like ATMs and advertising hoardings are themselves hereditaments and yet smaller (in at least one dimension) in plan view than the 3m square so overlapping others.

Agreed, it's why they've spent so much money trying to fix it. It'll be done with data conflation using numerous sources. Starting with a 3m sq is a much better starting point than a(n often incorrect ONS supplied) postcode file.

[ste]

...and as for the MoD, if you want to identify 3m sq in Syria to make an erm., delivery, W3W is a good start.

Coordinates and lat / long are also not foolproof.

[Jobbo]

If co-ordinates aren't foolproof, how can this system be better? Surely it just translates three words into co-ordinates, whether or not that's the current established grid or some other proprietary grid.

Postcode files are clearly going to be useless for fields. They don't have postboxes so would never appear on the Royal Mail database. Having a system where each acre of field gets about 450 descriptors doesn't seem to be particularly practicable either; if you refer to spandex.gorilla.flange and someone else refers to suck.tight.nuts you've no idea whether you're talking about the same field.

Even if we accept that uniquely identifying a 3m x 3m square is beneficial, having it identified by three words which differ across countries and which are neither themselves memorable, nor related to anything in the vicinity, seems a bizarrely unhelpful way to do it.

Then if you are the MoD, or the Mongolian government, being tied into a proprietary system is just as short-sighted.

Tom Scott came up with a similarly silly idea: the language Emojli , which despite being a joke started to gain traction so he closed it down.

[JLv3.0]

If co-ordinates aren't foolproof, how can this system be better? Surely it just translates three words into co-ordinates, whether or not that's the current established grid or some other proprietary grid.

Exactly this.

/ thread

[Simon]

I've known about this since it's inception. I'm surprised others are just cottoning on.

Me, well I like it.

As has been said:

1) If you're dealing with a big estate, or a house with multiple entrances then you can be exact about which entrance to use
2) Mercedes are using it because they identified that it's much quicker using voice control with W3W than trying to use postcode/house number, or worse putting an address by spelling it out fully. No, just hit voice control and read out the 3 words you want to go to and the nav does the rest.
3) Don't get too hung up on 'using their app'. As with all things nowadays, if you look at the W3W website you can see that they've exposed the functionality using an API, so you can hook W3W into your own app/maps etc and make calls directly back to their service.

The only downside I agree with is the lacking 'height' parameter, which they themselves acknowledge still needs another (traditional) identifier.

But on the whole it's a 'good thing'.

Oh and the point about using this over coordinates is that your 3 words are memorable. Who remembers their own GPS coordinates??

[Jobbo]

Three random unrelated words aren't memorable, particularly when the only distinction between the three random unrelated words which mark my bathroom and some desolate part of Alaska is that one of the words is plural.

May as well make it QR code based. You will only ever save the W3W address in your phone anyway.