Describe any location on earth - in 3 words

[kranky]

I thought this was pretty cool. Rather than long strings of numbers (coordinates) to identify a location, what3words.com can identify ANY 3 meter-by-3 meter location on the planet, using a string of 3 words, and has mapped the earth into 57 trillion areas.

In densely populated areas, the words tend to be smaller, and vice-versa.

Using words makes it less likely to get a location wrong. A mis-typed number could refer to a wrong location, but a misspelled word will simply go unrecognized. And even if an errant plural is used where the word should be singular, it will be pretty far from the desired location indicating a mistake.

zeal.pound.pint = Statue of Liberty (well, part of it) but zeal.pound.pints = in England

You can zoom way in on the map on their site and see the grid pattern and it will display the 3 words assigned to where the pointer is.

 

[jacobroloff]

The cupola of St Peter's basilica in Vatican City is located atcollect.message.blame.

 

[gorcorps]

The cupola of St Peter's basilica in Vatican City is located atcollect.message.blame.

You joined the forums for that? Huh

 

[John Connor]

Interesting.

The White House is: sulk.held.raves

The Pentagon is: staple.smile.rider

The Capital building is: gosh.casual.stale

The Pyramids of Giza is: pilots.speakers.niece

 

[twinrider1]

Completely useless.

 

[vi edit]

I'm having troubles understanding in what manner is this useful?

 

[Chiropteran]

Completely useless.

I agree.

 

[gorcorps]

Completely useless.

I'm having troubles understanding in what manner is this useful?

It's not useful, but hey it's the internet... not EVERYTHING needs to be useful. =P

 

[Markbnj]

Completely useless.

Agreed. The complete lack of semantic connection with the place being described, not to mention... I think it's nearly the same or perhaps more characters to type than the actual geo coords.

 

[glenn1]

Agreed. The complete lack of semantic connection with the place being described, not to mention... I think it's nearly the same or perhaps more characters to type than the actual geo coords.

Just wait until autocorrect kicks in. It'll be "I should have made that left turn at Albuquerque" indeed.

 

[glenn1]

How oddly appropriate: Cleveland Browns play at expect.defeat.mercy

https://map.what3words.com/expect.defeat.mercy

 

[dank69]

This idea is bad and its creators should feel bad.

 

[DrPizza]

Interesting.

The White House is: sulk.held.raves

The Pentagon is: staple.smile.rider

The Capital building is: gosh.casual.stale

The Pyramids of Giza is: pilots.speakers.niece

If every 3 meter by 3 meter location has 3 words - there are a heck of a lot more 3 word sets for all of those above.

 

[DrPizza]

Very few things are filtered out here at work; not sure why the OP's website is filtered.

 

[kranky]

Very few things are filtered out here at work; not sure why the OP's website is filtered.

Strange - ours filters tons of stuff but no problems with what3words.com. And the site is innocuous.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Hookers.and.blow yields no results.



I am disappoint...

 

[Muse]

My house, dummy.

 

[Craig234]

Completely useless.

That was Texas. Two words did it.

 

[DaveSimmons]

mostly.harmless

 

[SKORPI0]

https://map.what3words.com/

reject.retire.drums

used to live here --> speaks.packet.number

 

[KIAman]

One use could be that it's easier to communicate coordinates to other humans.

Easier to say to a human donkey.sausage.hymen rather than to say 15°46′51" N, 144°12′16" W. And easier to remember.

 

[twinrider1]

But how would you find donkey.sausage.hymen on a map? It seems to be completely random with no structure, no rules. And you can't relate one location to another.

 

[SSSnail]

What's wrong with GPS coordinates? Is this another one of those creating complicated solution to a problem that no one asked?

And, if you need to say something so human can remember, why not just use the name it already has? In most cases, it's shorter.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

smells.like.ass does not return any results let alone any in New Jersey. That makes it impossible to take the site seriously.

 

[pete6032]

How is it that pork.chop.sandwiches and all.your.base isn't used?