What3Words – Example

In the Google Chrome browser (or Firefox) there is an extension (software) which you can add and when you click on a spot when you are in Google Maps see circled dot, a box appears with the street view and the What3Words which applies to that square.

What3Words makes Google Maps more user friendly

Whilst you could tell people to go to 53.853027,-1.693035 

It does not take much imagination to see how that could go wrong. The lack of a minus sign moves you 3 degrees to the east which is around two hundred miles.  Directing someone on the What3Words App to fast.method.prime  whilst initially sounding odd is specific and in tests is easier to understand. For charities there is a £20 set up fee to use the app, but thereafter free.

Clearly some locations might not make much sense to direct people to, however Rawdon Co-op duck.wicked.push the buildings are still there for anyone wanting to go and see for themselves.

What’s more if the users clicks on the link you are taken to https://what3words.com/duck.wicked.push    to the What3Words page and in the bottom right-hand corner there are the Google icons to take you to the aerial view and from there you can position the yellow person icon and that puts you at todays street level view.

The whole world is divided in to 3 meter squares and each has its own 3 word name. This is much more specific than postcodes and much simpler than grid references.

I appreciate that not everyone has heard of this but the idea has been around a number of years and they are ramping up the advertising to make more people aware.