Describe Any Location On Earth In 3 Words

First time accepted submitter jameshumphreys writes "London startup what3words has successfully launched a new website which has carved the world map into almost 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares, assigning each square a simple, unique 3 word address. For instance, the 'what3words' for the famous Peter Pan statue in London's Hyde Park is 'union.prop.enjoy'. This means you can easily describe even remote locations with great precision. CEO Chris Sheldrick says, 'We see our service being most useful where current methods of describing location (e.g. postcodes or ZIP codes) don't do the job well enough or don't do the job at all — but of course it has applications as a preferred alternative even where the existing solutions do a decent job, but perhaps less precise/customised than w3w.' An API is planned 'in the coming weeks.'" The heart of Disneyworld could be "Radioactive Humanoid Mice"; what would you call your neck of the woods?

Comments

Phoenx, Arizona

[Valentinial]

Hot Frickin' Desert

So...

[xeio87]

It's a TinyUrl for map coordinates, but more human memorable?

1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052

[K. S. Kyosuke]

embrace.extend.extinguish anyone?

Re:1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052

[rsborg]

embrace.extend.extinguish anyone?

Wouldn't developers.developers.developers be more appropriate to the current CEO?

Re:1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052

[Kjella]

I'm sure their building is larger than 3x3 meter so they have room for both and bring.more.chairs as well :)

one better

[lactose99]

I'll describe the entire Earth in only 2:

Mostly Harmless

Re:Damn. Too many words.

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

San Francisco, CA: "Not United States"
Redmond, WA: "Hell On Earth"

Re:no.no.no

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

"Without being able to look up the mapping from the database, the three words don't seem to be useful."

Exactly, consumer! Our awesome new system replaces those pesky, confusing, 'numbers' that hurt your little head and interoperate with basically any map, globe, or other geography system on earth, with three simple words that are meaningful only in the context of our proprietary service! Isn't it great?

Just think of the possibilities: will it be more lucrative to charge fees for service? Or maybe mine people's queries for marketable insights about their behavior?

Slashdot....

[rullywowr]

Slashdot
nobody.reads.TFA

Re:Damn. Too many words.

[ackthpt]

Stockton?

No, that's the crotch of California. The Armpit is Oakland.

Re:This is the dumbest idea ever

[Tim12s]

This is going to catch on. Stupid ideas always do.

Continuity

[seyyah]

I'm sitting at beach.country.pineapple and my co-worker is at closing.rheumatoid.begin. How does that help someone find out if he's 6 feet away or 6000 miles away?

And how do you spell "rheumatoid" again?

Re:You can do it with just latitude / longitude

[cryptizard]

Now what does my mom do with that message? If I give her three words and tell her to type them into this website, it will be much more successful that telling her to do the same with a bunch of numbers she will easily fuck up.

Three words for the startup what3words

[paiute]

stupid.fucking.idea

or more accurately:

google.please.buyus

Re:You can do it with just latitude / longitude

[cbiltcliffe]

So now, instead, you've got to give her the three words, plus the URL of the website, which she will easily fuck up.

3words.....what?
What three words?
Oh...type into my browser....
ok...
www.what.three.words.com
I don't get anything.
Oh..ok.
www.what.3.words.com
It's still not working.
Grrrr.
www.what3.words.com
This stupid thing!
Just give me your damned latitude and longitude!!!

Six words would seem to work a lot better

[wonkey_monkey]

For instance, the 'what3words' for the famous Peter Pan statue in London's Hyde Park is 'union.prop.enjoy'

What's wrong with "peter.pan.statue.hyde.park.london"?