what3words

what3words
Founded July 2013
Founders Jack Waley-Cohen, Chris Sheldrick
Headquarters index.home.raft
Website what3words.com

what3words is a geocoding system for the simple communication of locations with a resolution of 3 m. what3words encodes geographic co-ordinates into 3 dictionary words (for example, the Statue of Liberty is located at planet.inches.most). what3words is different from other alphanumeric location systems and GPS coordinates in that it displays 3 words rather than long strings of numbers or random letters or numbers. what3words has a website, apps for iOS and Android, as well as an API that enables bi-directional conversion of what3words address and latitude/longitude co-ordinates.

Uses

what3words is an alternative to latitude and Longitude, GPS coordinates and for use where street address are not present.[1] It also adds a level of specificity to postcodes,.[2][3] It has been reported that what3words can help delivery & logistics and ecommerce.[4] It has been suggested in a OCHA thought piece as a way to geo-tag social media disaster reports,[5] and has also been integrated into the United Nations disaster and humanitarian reporting app UN-ASIGN.[6] It is being integrated into mapping tools,[7][8] taxi companies,[9] and property companies [10] including Nestoria and navigation app Navmii.[11] The system is being used to deliver packages in the favelas in Brasil with Cartero Amigo,[12] solar lights to the Slums in India with Pollinate-Energy [13] and mosquito traps in Tanzania with in2care.[14]

Design principles

what3words is a grid of the world made up of 57 trillion squares of 3 metres x 3 metres. Each square has been given a 3 word address. what3words has named the 17 trillion squares on land with 3 words in 8 other languages in addition to English: French, Russian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Swahili.[15]

Each what3words language is powered by a wordlist of 25,000 words (40,000 in English as in English it covers the sea as well as land). The wordlists go through multiple automated and human processes before being sorted by an algorithm that takes into account word length, distinctiveness, frequency, and ease of spelling and pronunciation. Homophones and variant spellings are treated to minimise any potential for confusion, and offensive words are removed. The end result is better words in places where each language is most likely to be used.[15]

The what3words algorithm actively shuffles similar-sounding 3 word combinations around the world to enable both human and automated intelligent error-checking. The result being if you enter a 3 word combination slightly incorrectly and the result is still a valid w3w result, the location will be so far away from the user’s intended area that it will be immediately obvious to both a user and an intelligent error-checking system.[15]

The what3words system works via algorithm as opposed to a database, meaning that the what3words core technology is contained with a file around 10MB in size. what3words originally sold "OneWord" addresses, which were stored in a database for a yearly fee,[16] but the feature has been canceled.[17]

Claimed advantages

The main claimed advantages of what3words is memorability and unambiguous nature of words for most everyday and non-technical uses.[18][19]

Awards

History

what3words launched in July 2013, and received USD 500,000 of seed funding in November 2013,[22] and added a further USD 1,000,000 in March 2014.[23][24][25] Investors include Shutl's Guy Westlake.

The online API released in November 2013 and offline SDK in October 2014.[26] Steven Ramage the former Ordnance Survey International Managing Director joined in November 2014.[27] Gary Gale joined in August 2015.[28]

On November 3rd, 2015 what3words closed a $3.5 million Series A funding round led by Intel Capital, with Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures and several of what3words original angel investors also participating. It brings the total raised by the U.K. startup to $5 million, after it topped up its initial $500,000 seed with a further $1 million last year.[29]

Applications using what3words

what3words iOS / Android

Available on iOS and Android

The Apple App Store describes this app as:

what3words App Icon
what3words is the simplest way to communicate precise location.

Use it to share the precise entrance for where you live and work; organise the perfect meeting spot or pinpoint hard-to-find places on your travels. Our app is a great tool for those unaddressed moments.

Explore the map, zoom in to see the grid and tap the wordbar to share a 3 word location with your friends. Or keep it simple and use the compass to navigate through crowds and in parks.

You can use the what3words app to find, share and get directions to any 3 word location in the world.

And do it all offline and in your own language.

It really is the simplest way to communicate precise location.[30]

PointPlot iOS

PointPlot is an iOS app and the iTunes App Store an except of the description reads:

PointPlot App Icon
PointPlot uses the GPS capability of an iOS device to make it simple to plot outdoor spaces and display this on a map and export to a variety of mapping systems, or share with others. It is for anybody who has a need to record a real life location on a map or compare locations on a map back to real life. This could be farmers, builders, scientists, archaeologists, systems developers or anybody with an interest in maps.

GeoView Pro iOS

GeoView Pro for iOS

GeoView Pro App Icon

GeoView Pro is a geospatial image & data viewing application designed for professionals, scientists and just about anyone who uses a map. Use it to create a layered display of base maps, XYZ gridded data along with interactive 3D shadows, vector graphics and your current GPS position.

You choose the files, we sort out the details. Everything has logical default settings to get your data displayed as quickly as possible. You may customize the workspace to suit your own taste, but in most cases you won’t have to. When you have things the way you like them, you can save the workspace for quick loading in the future.

External links

Founders

References

  1. ↑ "How a French vacation shows we need high-tech addresses". CNET. CBS Interactive. 10 May 2015.
  2. ↑ Cutlack, Gary. "W3W is a Three-Word Post Code Alternative". Gizmodo UK.
  3. ↑ Ponsford, Matthew (19 September 2014). "Goodbye home address, hello 'lazy.trouser.snake'?". CNN.
  4. ↑ Solon, Olivia (27 August 2015). "Three Little Words Could Transform E-Commerce". Bloomberg.com.
  5. ↑ "Establishing Social Media Hashtag Standards for Disaster Response". iRevolutions.
  6. ↑ "UN disaster app includes three word addresses". EE Publishers.
  7. ↑ "Geospago and what3words partner to provide a mobile mapping solution with 3-word addressing throughout the globe". GISuser.
  8. ↑ Gyllenspetz, Johan. "what3words Integration on Mapillary". Mapillary.
  9. ↑ Laird, James. "Bounce is a London Minicab App That Pinpoints Your Location to a 3x3m Square Spot". Lifehacker UK.
  10. ↑ "Nestoria Blog".
  11. ↑ Miles, Stuart. "Navmii navigation app turns driving into a game, uses What3Words to make sure you never get lost again". pocket-lint.com.
  12. ↑ "To Address Poverty, We Need Addresses". The Huffington Post UK.
  13. ↑ "Partner: Pollinate Energy Indian Slum Solar Lighting & what3words". what3words.
  14. ↑ "Partner: In2Care Mosquito Traps & what3words". what3words.
  15. 1 2 3 "About". what3words.
  16. ↑ Lomas, Natasha (8 Jul 2013). "Location-Pinpointing Startup what3words Sells 10,000+ OneWord Map-Pins In First Week". TechCrunch.
  17. ↑ "what3words on Twitter: "we did charge for that functionality but no longer offer it and access to the system is free."". 1 May 2015.
  18. ↑ "The best navigation idea I’ve seen since the Tube map". The Spectator.
  19. ↑ Crannell, C. W.; Parrish, J. M. (1957). "A comparison of immediate memory span for digits, letters, and words". The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied 44: 319–327.
  20. ↑ Diaz, Ann-Christine (26 June 2015). "What3Words Innovation Grand Prix Cannes - Special: Cannes Lions - Advertising Age". adage.com.
  21. ↑ http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_29110330/tech-awards-honor-an-array-laureates
  22. ↑ "Startup what3words gets USD 500,000 in seed round". Venture Capital Post.
  23. ↑ "Location Pinpointing Startup what3words Adds $1M More To Its Seed To Flog More Map Labels". TechCrunch. AOL.
  24. ↑ "what3words closes $1m to expand ‘alternative to postcodes’ mapping service". Startups.co.uk: Starting a business advice and business ideas.
  25. ↑ "What3words adds $1M more to seed round". Venture Capital Post.
  26. ↑ "what3words offline SDK launch".
  27. ↑ "Addressing start-up what3words appoints former Ordnance Survey International MD".
  28. ↑ "Leading UK Geocoding Expert Gary Gale Joins what3words". gim-international.com.
  29. ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/03/what3words-series-a/
  30. ↑ "what3words on the App Store". App Store. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  31. 1 2 "Team". what3words.
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