what3words

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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 three-word combinations around the world to enable both human and automated intelligent error-checking. The result is that if you enter athree-word combination slightly incorrectly and the result is still a valid w3w reference, 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

Application Name Icon Platform Search by w3w Use case
What3words [30]
File:What3words Pin and iOS app icon.png
50px
 iOS / Android Yes Navigation
PointPlot [31]
File:PointPlot icon.png
50px
 iOS Yes Mapping
GeoView Pro [32]
File:GeoView Pro App Icon.jpg
50px
 iOS Yes Mapping
Navmii [33] iOS / Android / Windows / Blackberry Yes Navigation

External links

Founders

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_29110330/tech-awards-honor-an-array-laureates
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/03/what3words-series-a/
  30. ↑ http://what3words.com
  31. ↑ http://what3words.com/using-what3words/surveying-tools/
  32. ↑ http://what3words.com/using-what3words/surveying-tools/
  33. ↑ http://what3words.com/using-what3words/navigation-delivery-tools/
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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