Google's New 'Plus Codes' Are An Open Source, Global Alternative To Street Addresses (9to5google.com)

Google has developed a "simple and consistent addressing system that works across India and globally." Called "Plus Codes," the location-based digital addressing system is designed for people with addresses that are not easily located through conventional descriptors like street names or house numbers. That's half of the world's urban population, according to a World Bank estimate. 9to5Google reports: Notably, this open source solution composed of 10 characters works globally and can be incorporated by other products and platforms for free, with a developer page available here. It works offline and on print when overlaid as a grid on existing maps. Places that are close together share similar plus codes, while the system is identifiable by the "+" symbol in every address. "This system is based on dividing the geographical surface of the Earth into tiny 'tiled areas,' attributing a unique code to each of them," reports Google. "This code simply comprises a '6-character + City' format that can be generated, shared and searched by anyone -- all that's needed is Google Maps on a smartphone."

The first four characters are the area code, describing a region of roughly 100 x 100 kilometers. The last six characters are the local code, describing the neighborhood and the building, an area of roughly 14 x 14 meters -- about the size of one half of a basketball court. The area code is not needed when navigating within a town, while another optional character can be appended to provide additional accuracy down to a 3 x 3 meter region. Users of Google Maps in India will be able to easily find the plus code for any area in the app, while the mapping service along with Search will support the entry of the new coordinate system. Plus codes for any location can also be found with this tool.

Comments

I really hope they try to patent this...

[Terje Mathisen]

First obvious reference would be the UTM map coordinate system which also works off 100x100 km squares, here we use 6, 8, 10 or even more digits to designate any spot on the globe, to any desired accuracy/precision. (6 digits typically give you 100x100m squares, 8 digits 10x10m and with 10 digits you have a single square meter.) This system have been used in the military for a _long_ time now.

Next we have the What3Words idea which have already been mentioned, giving approximately 3x3m resolution using 3 english-language words which makes it much easier to memorize or send to someone else.

Terje

Re:Why?

[PhunkySchtuff]

Street addresses work when there is a street to address.
In some countries, the streets literally have no name - Japan springs to mind. In Japan, the blocks have names and the streets are just the space between the blocks. Asking someone what street they live on is the same as asking someone here what is the name of the block you live on? Then the numbers sometimes go in order around the block, except there are often gaps where two properties have been merged, or numbers out of order where one property has been subdivided. In other countries, there are no streets. There are paths, there are tracks, but there may not be a street with a name.

gps coordinates

[Anonymous Coward]

A quick run through wolfram alpha converting gps coordinates to base 36

4z.zzz = 179.999978

4z.zzy = 179.999957

Difference = 0.000021 degrees

At the equator, 1 degree = 111320m longitude and 110575m latitude (based on a quick google) which makes the 5 digit base36 encoded gps coordinates accurate to within a 2.5m x 2.5m box at the equator, and a much smaller box closer to the poles.

That's within the 3m x 3m area that google's new thingo does. Drop the decimal (or base-36al) points, and you have your character string.

Not an alternative to adresses

[houghi]

Adresses are used for more than people to drive to. Adresses are used to send packages to people. Adresses can be PO boxes and can include apprtment numbers, so there is a difference between a person who lives on the 2nd floor and somebody on the 3rd floor. There are plenty of places where the code will be useless and an adress will be needed.

Besides meaning a location, in many places an adress is also a legal part of other things, like the location of an address. You can not just replace the adress with a pluscode on your legal company letters in many countries.

Then there are the places that not even HAVE an address, so there is nothing to replace.

What it is is an alternative to the Geographic coordinate system

This does not mean it is a bad thing or useless, but it is NOT an alternative to adresses. If anything it complements it, not replaces it.

And then there is Geocoding that started in 1960.

Re:Why?

[Entrope]

Japanese addresses are almost useless for locating a building unless you have the neighborhood's map at hand: Because the numbers are assigned more or less chronologically, standing in front of Naninani-ku 1-3-1 does not mean you are anywhere near Naninani-ku 1-4-1. Unless you're in one of the places that uses a different system, which may be more systematic for coarse locations but not much more helpful for building locations.

"Plus Codes" are just a radix-20 method for expressing latitude and longitude. If you know how far away 38.8039,-77.022 is, that is only because you have a lot of practice using that notation. A "ten digit" Plus Code (which is 11 characters long because they add that plus sign) has resolution of 0.000125 degrees in both latitude and longitude, so it gives more precise location than your 15-character string.

Overall, I would say that Google devised Plus Codes because they didn't know about MGRS, or wanted to make something quasi-proprietary. It is weird that they spend so much space complaining about other lat/long-based locating systems without applying the same rules to Plus Codes.

W3W's major drawbacks are that it is proprietary and that it needs a huge database to translate locations. A minor drawback is that it breaks down at sea.

Re:3x3 option code almost mandatory

[gl4ss]

look if it just gets 10 meters then thats okay.

it would work for ordering mcdonalds or whatever. in thailand most roads don't have names on the maps and some roads have different number on here maps vs. google maps. openstreetmaps. it's really fucking annoying. the local mcdonalds operation has a map where you can put in your location... .... but it turns it into a street address that possibly points to 10 km away. ..so instead of explaining just an address, they will call you up and you need to have someone local to explain basically where the place is and even then it's a crapshoot if they understand which gas station they're meant to turn at.