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What 3 Words

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mmh

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I do. A lot of people don't know what that means at all though. To them, it's a string of numbers with a couple of small circles and letters, and they'd not have the first idea in how you'd say it.

Yes, and those people also have no idea what "co-ordinates" mean. As someone already said, this is a solution looking for a problem.
 
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najaB

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I do. A lot of people don't know what that means at all though. To them, it's a string of numbers with a couple of small circles and letters, and they'd not have the first idea in how you'd say it.
And to anyone who doesn't use three words post.bat.merry is equally useless. At least coordinates don't require me to use a privately controlled app/website to translate into something meaningful.
 

Crossover

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Sitting here, at my Laptop.

I click use location - I get 3 words
I type in my postcode - I get 3 different words

What happens if the user can't read ?
Can't access their current location ?

You're not physically at the exact centre of your postcode area. Searching just your postcode, instead of defining exactly where you are, will give you an inaccurate location - just like with any other mapping system.

If you can't read then you probably can't use w3w, unless it has voice functions I haven't noticed yet, or unless it integrates with other assistive apps - but in that case you probably wouldn't be able to use many other map/address systems either.

Aside from not being in the centre of the postcode area, some property will cover more than one 3x3m block. Indeed, I would have a different set of words depending if I am in the house or in the garden (just like I would have a slightly different grid reference)
 

Highlandspring

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It may amuse folk to know that the exact same tedious circular argument about What 3 Words has been raging in Network Rail’s internal Yammer social media platform for about two years now...
 

EM2

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And to anyone who doesn't use three words post.bat.merry is equally useless. At least coordinates don't require me to use a privately controlled app/website to translate into something meaningful.
They need to be translated into something meaningful for someone to use them if they don't understand them.
If I'm passing information, I check understanding.
I wouldn't use co-ordinates, or OS grid references, or W3W without knowing that the other party understands them.
 

najaB

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I wouldn't use co-ordinates, or OS grid references, or W3W without knowing that the other party understands them.
That goes without saying. However, which is easier to gain understanding?

Grid coordinates: "Have you got a map?"
Three words: "Okay, go to this website..."

Three words is an interesting gimmick, but that's all it is. To be useful for passing your current location information, you have to have a device that is both capable of determining your GPS location and accessing the Internet...

"Share" button anyone?
 

EM2

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That goes without saying. However, which is easier to gain understanding?

Grid coordinates: "Have you got a map?"
Three words: "Okay, go to this website..."

Three words is an interesting gimmick, but that's all it is. To be useful for passing your current location information, you have to have a device that is both capable of determining your GPS location and accessing the Internet...

"Share" button anyone?
You don't need GPS or Internet access because it works offline. You can navigate the map, find your W3W and then let another party know (if they have access to W3W of course) via voice call or SMS.
 

najaB

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You don't need GPS or Internet access because it works offline.
It's able to determine your location to 3x3m accuracy, without GPS...

I withdraw all my previous objections. :rolleyes:
You can navigate the map, find your W3W...
Oh great, so it just has to store a high resolution map of the entire globe.
 

najaB

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Easy enough to send a link to a mapping site instead of grid co-ordinates.
I know. That's even easier because the same coordinates will work with both offline maps and just about any mapping site. As compared to no maps and one mapping site.
 

najaB

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That isn't what I said. You don't need to use GPS to search the map and find a location.
So how is this any more use for than someone trying to inform someone else of their location when they don't know where they are?

And if it doesn't need an Internet connection then it must be storing a high-resolution map of the entire globe, no?
 

EM2

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So how is this any more use for than someone trying to inform someone else of their location when they don't know where they are?
Your point was:
To be useful for passing your current location information, you have to have a device that is both capable of determining your GPS location and accessing the Internet...
There are two different issues.
If you don't know where you are, and want to find the W3W address of your location, then yes you need GPS.
If you do know where you are (even roughly), and want to find the W3W address of your location, then you don't need GPS.
And to pass your information, as I said, you don't need either GPS or internet access.
And if it doesn't need an Internet connection then it must be storing a high-resolution map of the entire globe, no?
Maybe it does. But the app is only 50MB or so.
 

mmh

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You don't need GPS or Internet access because it works offline. You can navigate the map, find your W3W and then let another party know (if they have access to W3W of course) via voice call or SMS.

If I have no idea where I am I'm highly unlikely to be able to determine where I am from a map on a mobile phone.

How does this map on my phone work anyway if I've no internet access?
 

EM2

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If I have no idea where I am I'm highly unlikely to be able to determine where I am from a map on a mobile phone.

How does this map on my phone work anyway if I've no internet access?
I have no idea, I'm only a user. Ask the developers - https://intercom.help/what3words/en/articles/2212844-does-what3words-work-offline
...the entire what3words’ system is very compact, and so it can work offline when you don't have a data connection. Our partner apps and services typically launch using the online version of our system, but offline support is now being included in more and more apps that use what3words - and of course our own apps work offline.
 

LWB

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I have two free apps on my phone (one from the OS) which give me OS grid references offline and in “airplane mode”. I am an accomplished map reader and the apps are consistently accurate with respect to OS maps and with respect to each other. They both require no particular skill other than switching the app on with a button press and reading two letters and six numbers. Why is anything more needed?

Edit: Both of them are totally naff at altitudes BTW.
 

LWB

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As I said, it takes no more than a button press. I use my ability to check the app is accurate. It is. Perhaps you could download one, try it and offer a valid answer to my question.
 

EM2

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As I said, it takes no more than a button press. I use my ability to check the app is accurate. It is. Perhaps you could download one, try it and offer a valid answer to my question.
Not everyone has your ability. My wife doesn't, my step-daughters don't. They would have no way of knowing if that information is accurate.
And what do you do when you're somewhere that doesn't use Ordnance Survey grid references?
 

LWB

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Firstly, your family don’t need to check the accuracy. It’s very impressive. Do they need to check the accuracy of this 3 word thing?
Secondly, if I knew how to post pictures, I’d post the screenshot showing how simple the app is. It couldn’t be easier.
Thirdly, it is possible to select (from a simple menu) latitude and longitude values which are universally applicable the world over.
In fact anywhere outside OS areas return lat and long by default
 
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Peter Mugridge

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I'm just curious... does this organisation have filters in place to prevent it from ever assigning a naughty word in one of these address things?
 

EM2

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Firstly, your family don’t need to check the accuracy. It’s very impressive. Do they need to check the accuracy of this 3 word thing?
Yet you say that you do check the accuracy? How do people unfamiliar with the app know that it's accurate? Remember the Apple Maps fiasco in 2012? Pontypridd was shown 6 miles (10 kilometres) northeast of its actual location, Stratford-upon-Avon, was missing altogether and if you looked up "London" you were directed to the Canadian city London instead of its namesake!
As for W3W, it's the same database, so what it says is the location address on my copy of the app would also be what it says on yours.
Secondly, if I knew how to post pictures, I’d post the screenshot showing how simple the app is. It couldn’t be easier.
And this is pretty much my point. I know how to post pictures. I could just say 'Oh, it's easy. I don't see why anyone else can't' but I realise that not everyone can.
And I realise that not everyone can read maps, or interpret co-ordinates, or even describe where they are.
If W3W doesn't suit you, fine, don't use it. I really only started the thread to see what experience others have had with it, but seem to have ended up defending it to all and sundry, as if I was the I one that invented it!
Thirdly, it is possible to select (from a simple menu) latitude and longitude values which are universally applicable the world over.
In fact anywhere outside OS areas return lat and long by default
So now it's not a simple button press? Your simple app has now got more complicated.
If you understand lat. and long., and how to use them, great. If you don't, they are completely useless to you.
 
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najaB

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Interestingly (and likely as a result of this thread) I'm getting the YouTube ad for W3W popping up quite refill regularly and they don't advertise its use in the "pick your known location off the map" mode. They use three examples of people who are lost, trying to pass their location to the emergency services.

This brings me back to the sheer pointlessness of this system: you're using a device which has both GNSS and Internet connectivity to turn a set of geographic coordinates into a intermediate format, so that the recipient can convert the intermediate format back into a set of geographic coordinates. Why not just cut out the middle man?

The other reason given for using dictionary words rather than coordinates is that they're less likely to be misunderstood on a bad voice connection. To which I'd say that a SMS requires less data and is more likely to be received than a voice call - you could send the coordinates directly from a mapping or GPS app several times over using less battery and with more likelihood of successful delivery rather than making a voice call.
 

EM2

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This brings me back to the sheer pointlessness of this system: you're using a device which has both GNSS and Internet connectivity to turn a set of geographic coordinates into a intermediate format, so that the recipient can convert the intermediate format back into a set of geographic coordinates. Why not just cut out the middle man?
How do you easily send co-ordinates via a voice call (and almost all contact to an emergency control is via voice comms, at least initially) if you don't know how to interpret co-ordinates?
And if the recipient is using the same system, why do you need to convert anything?
 

AndrewE

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This brings me back to the sheer pointlessness of this system: you're using a device which has both GNSS and Internet connectivity to turn a set of geographic coordinates into a intermediate format, so that the recipient can convert the intermediate format back into a set of geographic coordinates. Why not just cut out the middle man?
As I said before, if something is (or seems to be) free then it is probable that you are the product.
I bet they make their money out of website and location tracking and other cookies installed on your computer/phone, which you will have agreed to when you signed up to use the "service."
 

edwin_m

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The other reason given for using dictionary words rather than coordinates is that they're less likely to be misunderstood on a bad voice connection. To which I'd say that a SMS requires less data and is more likely to be received than a voice call - you could send the coordinates directly from a mapping or GPS app several times over using less battery and with more likelihood of successful delivery rather than making a voice call.
There are plenty of similar-sounding words that could be mistaken. Although mentioned above the system is intended to detect this by giving a wildly wrong location, there would be plenty of repeating back to get the correct one. If you're giving co-ordinates in figures then there are only ten words you might be using, and there is also the standard radio conventions of "niner" to avoid confusion with "five".
 

EM2

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As I said before, if something is (or seems to be) free then it is probable that you are the product.
I bet they make their money out of website and location tracking and other cookies installed on your computer/phone, which you will have agreed to when you signed up to use the "service."
Have you read the Ts and Cs?
 

AndrewE

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Have you read the Ts and Cs?
Life's too short! I can read a map and use grid references (and don't have a fancy phone anyway) so it would be time wasted.
I also haven't read "Surveillance capitalism" yet, but I understand the principles.
 

whhistle

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Saw this on the BBC news the other week and since, I have found myself using it more and more.

Some hikers got lost in the woods and the Emergency services person on the phone told them to download the app and tell them their location. Obviously mapping wouldn't work in a bunch of trees as there's no point of reference. However, within an hour, the people were found.

I've used it to tell people exactly where I am if meeting at a park.

Best of all, it's good for railway locations!

Essentially, the world has been "mapped" into small squares (only a metre or so square, so lots of them!).
Then each square is given a three word reference. This reference can be written into the app elsewhere and shows the exact location.

"Come and meet me at Kings Cross"
"Where are you?"
"By the shops"
"which shops?"
"the ones by the departures"
"which departures"
"near the entrance"
"which entrance?!"
"the one near the departures!"

Or

"Come and meet me at Kings Cross"
"where are you?"
"repair.goals.minds"
"I see you"

Quite fun!
 
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