Addresses obsolete in world of what3words squares

The humble street address is being challenged by a new age three-word address system that covers the planet.

An example of What3words’ 3m x 3m grids in London.

The humble street address is being challenged by a new-age three-word system that covers the entire planet.

The what3words system ­divides Earth into 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares, and assigns a random three-word name to each square. If you want to meet someone at the entrance to the pavilion at Bondi Beach, tell them to meet you at “paths.friend.called”, the middle of the Sydney Harbour Bridge is “vast.range.cells” while the ­library at Parliament House, Canberra, is at “hurry.verse.object”.

You can be really precise with what3words, as each square is small. Instead of saying “meet me at the end of the Sydney Park carpark road at Alexandria where it meets the pathway”, just say “holly.grants.dirt”. That could help inform emergency services of a ­location or specifying a difficult-to-find pick-up point late at night.

The what3words app for iPhone and Android quickly translates it back to a map ­location, and gives the three-word address of anywhere you pinpoint on a map, including at sea. You can type addresses or use voice.

What3words labels every 3m square area of earth with 3 unique words

The accuracy of the system means buildings often have several three-word addresses as they are covered by several 3m x 3m squares.

What3words was launched in 2013 and is just now gathering ­momentum. It was showcased at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

If you think the three-word ­address system is useless gibberish, note it is being integrated into mapping and transport systems.

In June last year, TomTom ­announced that what3words ­addressing would be rolled out to its consumer and automotive customers. Type in the three words, and a map can plot you to that destination. Smartphone mapping and navigation platform Navmii is also using it.

What3words chief marketing officer Giles Rhys Jones told The Australian that Mercedes-Benz, branches of the Red Cross, Lonely Planet, Domino’s Pizza and Spanish vehicle hire company Cabify were among users.

Logistics software provider ­LogixGRID, a cloud-based platform for logistics and e-commerce companies uses three-word ­addresses. It offers enterprise ­resource planning, order management and delivery solutions.

TomTom says it will roll out three-word addresses to consumers

In November last year the venture capital arm of Sony, the Sony Innovation Fund, came aboard, joining Daimler, SAIC Capital, Alpine Electronics and Intel Capital in backing the company.

“We have a nice beer named after us, have been put into three US TV dramas, and a Hollywood movie with us as a twist to the story­line is coming out this year,” Mr Rhys Jones said.

Apart from free mapping apps and online maps, what3words has a photo app for labelling pictures with a three-word address, an application programming interface and software developers’ kit for coders, e-commerce plugins and an Excel add-in. The what3words system is available in 26 languages.

Details are at what3words.com.

What3words labels every 3m square area of earth with 3 unique words