Successful people often became successful by pursuing an idea they think is good, but that everyone else thinks is wrong (but isn’t), or they have a (good) idea that’s brand new.
There’s a new company called what3words that’s onto something. They’ve assigned a unique string of three easy words that identifies each three meter square patch anywhere on the planet.
Why? Because we can remember and use a three word location description a lot easier than we can numbers, like latitude and longitude, and because there’s often confusion and ambiguity in a location’s address. There’re eight “Lonsdale Roads” just in London. And London is one of the best addressed cities in the world.
Successful ideas can seem obvious after they catch on because they answer simple questions. Like what information do people crave but don’t have? How can you give consumers access to data? What will make peoples’ lives better, save them money and give them better access to other people?
Here’s some of the claims from what3words:
The what3words app is small enough to install on almost all smartphones and works across platforms and devices.
The what3words geocoder turns geographic coordinates into 3 word addresses & vice-versa
what3words is a universal addressing system based on a 3mx3m global grid. Each of the 57 trillion 3mx3m squares in the world has been pre-allocated a fixed & unique 3 word address.
It’s much easier to remember, use and share than a set of coordinates.
When addresses are inaccurate, because either the house name or a road name is not recognised by mapping apps, or when there are multiple towns and streets with the same name, it can cause confusion, annoyance and wasted time.
Taxis often have trouble finding remote or out-of-the-way locations, particularly in areas with poor addressing systems. Inputting of destinations into taxi apps can be difficult, and giving the pick-up location for a phone-only taxi is often complicated – even more so if the pick-up point is not easily identifiable by a street address.
Poor addressing contributes to the last mile problem that accounts for up to 28% of the total cost to move goods.
A 3 word address will show the potential renter or buyer exactly where a property is situated, be that along a long road, in a village with only house names or a plot on the side of a mountain.
By using what3words, social media users can instantly and easily share their current locations (in a global, unambiguous, platform-independent way), or past/future locations equally as easily.
I found the what3words address for my house in a small town on the Pacific coast of Mexico. If you need to find me it’s: sizes.seal.wagged.