what3words

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what3words
FoundedJuly 2013
FoundersJack Waley-Cohen, Chris Sheldrick
HeadquartersWestbourne Studios,
London
Websitewhat3words.com

What3words (stylized 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.

History

Founded by Jack Waley-Cohen and Chris Sheldrick,[1] what3words launched in July 2013, and received USD 500,000 of seed funding in November 2013,[2] and added a further USD 1,000,000 in March 2014.[3][4][5] Investors include Shutl's Guy Westlake.

The online API released in November 2013 and offline SDK in October 2014.[6] Steven Ramage the former Ordnance Survey International Managing Director joined in November 2014.[7] Gary Gale joined in August 2015.[8]

On November 3, 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 in 2014.[9]

Design principles

What3words uses a grid of the world made up of 57 trillion squares of 3 metres by 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.[10]

Each what3words language uses a wordlist of 25,000 words (40,000 in English, as 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.[10]

The what3words algorithm actively shuffles similar-sounding three-word combinations around the world to enable both human and automated error-checking. The result is that if three-word combination is entered 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.[10]

The what3words system works via a proprietary 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,[11] but the feature has been canceled.[12]

The main claimed advantage of what3words is memorability and unambiguous nature of words for most everyday and non-technical uses.[13][14]

Usage and awards

What3words is an alternative to latitude and Longitude, GPS coordinates and for use where street address are not present.[15] It also adds a level of specificity to postcodes,.[16][17] It has been reported that what3words can help delivery and logistics and ecommerce.[18] It has been suggested in a OCHA thought piece as a way to geo-tag social media disaster reports,[19] and has also been integrated into the United Nations disaster and humanitarian reporting app UN-ASIGN.[20] It is being integrated into mapping tools,[21][22] taxi companies,[23] and property companies [24] including Nestoria and navigation app Navmii.[25] The system is being used to deliver packages in the favelas in Brasil with Cartero Amigo,[26] solar lights to the Slums in India with Pollinate-Energy [27] and mosquito traps in Tanzania with in2care.[28] Mongolia’s national postal delivery service Mongol Post adopted What3words for postal deliveries throughout the country.[29]

In 2015, what3words won the Grand Prix for Innovation at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.[30] It also won the Tech Awards Sobrato Organization Economic Development Award.[31]

References

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

External links

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