A New Address for Wherever You Are

Move over street address, there is a new way to identify where you are in this world. Sure, for the foreseeable future, packages and your mail will continue to be delivered using your street address, but what if there was an even better way?

As the website describes: “Street addresses weren’t designed for 2021. They aren’t accurate enough to specify precise locations, such as building entrances, and don’t exist for parks and many rural areas. This makes it hard to find places and prevents people from describing exactly where help is needed in an emergency. That’s why we created what3words.”

The technology is quite simple. The entire globe has been divided into 10’x10’ squares (actually 3 meters) and three simple words in a string like ///super.bananas.construction then pinpoints that particular square. This string can define a back door from a front door of a building, unlike a street address and, more importantly, can tell someone where to rescue you in a park or in the seas.

Founded by Chris Sheldrick, Jack Waley-Cohen, Mohan Ganesalingam and Michael Dent, what3words was launched in July 2013. Sheldrick and Ganesalingam conceived the idea when Sheldrick, working as an event organizer, struggled to get bands and equipment to music venues using inadequate address information. Sheldrick tried using GPS coordinates to locate the venues, but decided that words were better than numbers after a one-digit error led him to the wrong location. He credits a mathematician friend for the idea of dividing the world into three-meter squares, and the linguist Jack Waley-Cohen with using memorable words.

Join the runners, hikers, cyclists and bird watchers using what3words to share the precise starting points of activities as well as their favorite spots. From walking trails to incredible viewpoints – you can use what3words to save and share the exact locations of hidden gems with friends and followers. When it’s hard to describe where you are in an emergency, you only need to read out three words for 911 to know exactly where to find the incident.

I can imagine ordering a pizza to my beach location using this technology. But, like any tech, this needs to be adopted. To get and translate your three word string, you need an app and an Internet connection. For this reason, this may never replace the venerable street address, but one can imagine great use of this more accurate way to pinpoint your location anywhere on the globe.

FYI, Mongolia has adopted what3words for its postal system! There may be a future in this!