What Three Words

[Billy]

Has anyone used this? I downloaded the app today be good for Europe where they don't have post many accurate codes.

Placed an order with AO.com and was asked for the 3 words to help with delivery, this is what prompted me to download it

The simplest way to talk about location

Every 3 metre square has a unique 3 word address.

what3words.com

 

[2into1]

I think it's brilliant, although they could do a better job of explaining how to share, and how to use the codes.

 

[Tamanddave]

Have found it really useful for arranging meeting points, you can then link to google streetview to check out parking suitability if required

 

[kurienp]

Yup, a key application to use especially when trail riding to alert for meetups (but also for use in an emergency to guide the services to location of any incident).

 

[Velma's Dad]

It's a good system although somewhat limited by the decision a couple of years ago by Google not to support it, and go with their own standard. There's now a W3W extension for Chrome but you have to have it installed which 99% of people won't of course.

Some emergency services can accept a position report using W3W. However I tried using it a month or so ago when trying to give a location to NHS 101 (long story, I was trying to get an emergency prescription set up while on the road away from home...). They'd never even heard of it, although that said they also didn't have a frigging clue what a UK Ordnance Survey grid reference was either, so what can you do.

One of the useful applications of W3W is to create a functional 'street address' for dwellers of informal settlements (ie slums) in some parts of the world. Residents then have an identifiable address that they can use to access public services, right to vote etc.

 

[westfalia]

They'd never even heard of it, although that said they also didn't have a frigging clue what a UK Ordnance Survey grid reference was either, so what can you do.

what3words did you tell them.

 

[OGII]

Obviously not sensible to post here but I love some of the w3w references for our house, very apt. Especially where the Cali parks and the grid above my son's bedroom.....

 

[andyinluton]

One of the useful applications of W3W is to create a functional 'street address' for dwellers of informal settlements (ie slums) in some parts of the world. Residents then have an identifiable address that they can use to access public services, right to vote etc.

Will be invaluable in Ireland, I did a development in Greystones about 20 miles south of Dublin. Our address was just the house name, unnamed road, Greystones. Once we knocked the house down it changed to "the building site, unnamed road, Greystones.

For material deliveries we had to provide full directions from the nearest pub.

Until you've not had a post code you don't know how good generally they are.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Has anyone used this? I downloaded the app today be good for Europe where they don't have post many accurate codes.

Placed an order with AO.com and was asked for the 3 words to help with delivery, this is what prompted me to download it

The simplest way to talk about location

Every 3 metre square has a unique 3 word address.

what3words.com

Yes, had the app for a while but not used it. Interesting that companies are now looking at using it. Excellent for deliveries.

 

[Velma's Dad]

Will be invaluable in Ireland, I did a development in Greystones about 20 miles south of Dublin. Our address was just the house name, unnamed road, Greystones. Once we knocked the house down it changed to "the building site, unnamed road, Greystones.

For material deliveries we had to provide full directions from the nearest pub.

Until you've not had a post code you don't know how good generally they are.

Yep many parts of the word have no post code system other than at a very coarse level eg town or district. Makes it incredibly hard to locate a place or even to know which one you're talking about especially when there are a lot of places with the same name or spelling isn't regularised after transliteration from another script eg from Arabic.

In some places villages are known by the name of the village chief/head ("Fred's Place") and may be labelled on a map as such. But then Fred dies and Albert takes over...

I hit a head-scratcher in north east Kenya when trying to give locations of villages for emergency food distribution by helicopter after flooding. Villages seemed to have moved, sometimes by tens of km. I hadn't really comprehended what 'pastoralism' actually meant as a lifestyle there (when the grazing moves, the village moves). Doh.

 

[Sad]

Some emergency services can accept a position report using W3W. However I tried using it a month or so ago when trying to give a location to NHS 101

111 is not an emergency service - its for non-urgent medical advice and out of hours primary care and , 999 will use it...

 

[Velma's Dad]

111 is not an emergency service - its for non-urgent medical advice and out of hours primary care and , 999 will use it...

Fair enough. And I should have said 111 not 101. It was just that it felt like being in Room 101 trying to get them to talk to me without a postcode of where I was calling from. Which happened to be a layby near a motorway junction. Computer said no.

But I don't think 100% of UK 999 services yet use W3W, although hopefully it will get to that soon.

 

[haydnw2]

W3W can be incredibly useful in the right situation - my father-in-law has been asked by Amazon to add details of their front door to his account because it's in the middle of nowhere down a long drive. However, despite the clever design of the system (definitely worth a read) I don't think it's suitable for emergency situations, and the chairman of the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association agrees (last month):

“Use of the What3words app, a new way of reporting your location has seen a massive increase with nearly 90 separate uses compare to just 13 in 2019. This new app is great in the urban area or open countryside situation with good signals and satellite strength but in the mountains only 75 per cent of the reports have been accurate.

“This means that 1 in 4 of the callouts would put your position over 500m out, and in some case even kilometres out; not helpful when teams are trying to reach you as an injured or lost walker.”

Admittedly when I texted 999 from the side of Snowdon they did ask me for the postcode of the emergency, but MRT do already have services like SARLOC so adding W3W to the mix is potentially just another layer of error.

 

[Velma's Dad]

W3W can be incredibly useful in the right situation - my father-in-law has been asked by Amazon to add details of their front door to his account because it's in the middle of nowhere down a long drive. However, despite the clever design of the system (definitely worth a read) I don't think it's suitable for emergency situations, and the chairman of the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association agrees (last month):

Admittedly when I texted 999 from the side of Snowdon they did ask me for the postcode of the emergency, but MRT do already have services like SARLOC so adding W3W to the mix is potentially just another layer of error.

As I understand it, while the phone can send an accurate GPS position to the W3W app (if you're up on the hill then GPS satellite visibility should be no prob) the app then relies on having an internet connection. But weird that it would give a wrong location, rather than just none at all out of signal. Must be very bad design.

There's no real substitute for an OS map sheet, compass and the ability to use them, but fewer and fewer people seem to be able to do that these days.

 

[WelshGas]

As I understand it, while the phone can send an accurate GPS position to the W3W app (if you're up on the hill then GPS satellite visibility should be no prob) the app then relies on having an internet connection. But weird that it would give a wrong location, rather than just none at all out of signal. Must be very bad design.

There's no real substitute for an OS map sheet, compass and the ability to use them, but fewer and fewer people seem to be able to do that these days.

The OS map and compass does depend on the other person on the end of the phone also being able to use the same, or even know what you are talking about.

 

[Swiss Cheese]

I really like the W3W concept but so far have not really used it. I do feel sad that many today have lost map reading skills due to reliance on easily available tech.

Anyway, how about going here?

///camper.vans.home

This is the what3words address for a 3 metre square location near Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska.

w3w.co

///love.camper.vans

This is the what3words address for a 3 metre square location near Chevak, Alaska.

w3w.co

///camper.vans.dream

This is the what3words address for a 3 metre square location near Mbeya.

w3w.co

 

[Velma's Dad]

I really like the W3W concept but so far have not really used it. I do feel sad that many today have lost map reading skills due to reliance on easily available tech.

Anyway, how about going here?

///camper.vans.home

This is the what3words address for a 3 metre square location near Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska.

w3w.co

///love.camper.vans

This is the what3words address for a 3 metre square location near Chevak, Alaska.

w3w.co

///camper.vans.dream

This is the what3words address for a 3 metre square location near Mbeya.

w3w.co

///camper.vans.nightmares doesn't seem all that bad actually.

 

[OGII]

///camper.vans.nightmares doesn't seem all that bad actually.

It would take more than 4mo to get our camper vans home....

 

[Barbara]

Has anyone used this? I downloaded the app today be good for Europe where they don't have post many accurate codes.

Placed an order with AO.com and was asked for the 3 words to help with delivery, this is what prompted me to download it

The simplest way to talk about location

Every 3 metre square has a unique 3 word address.

what3words.com

Used it in Spain to pick up a friend whose bike had 2 punctures.

 

[haydnw2]

There's no real substitute for an OS map sheet, compass and the ability to use them, but fewer and fewer people seem to be able to do that these days.

The OS map and compass does depend on the other person on the end of the phone also being able to use the same, or even know what you are talking about.

Indeed, agree on both counts. And there is no standard procedure for passing info from a 999 call operator to mountain rescue, so you have to make it really clear to the person on the other end of the phone that the grid ref numbers you're giving them are very important and must be passed on to MR. AML is helpful because your phone will automatically text its most accurate position (from GPS, wifi, etc.) to the emergency operator, behind the scenes, which is very clever - more details on my blog.

I think W3W would only really take off if everyone built in support for the '///' nomenclature - for the example below I still have to create an HTML link because Safari doesn't recognise that '///' signifies the start of a W3W address.

It looks like ///camper.vans.life can be pretty lonely at times (Alaska):

 

[peregrinus]

I’ve used it a few times. Very useful. If you watch John and Mandy on YouTube, they use it to share their park up locations.

 

[billyhedge]

Been a big fan of w3w from the outset. Used it many times for work (emergency services), for casualty locations, access routes, hazardous areas etc - adopted widely by 999 control centres in the UK. Grid references are ok but many folk wouldn’t have a clue where to get one from and the numbers can easily be muddled by an injured/confused person or by a panicky rescuer. Also being loaded into many new vehicles software.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

Also being loaded into many new vehicles software.

Also works with Waze.