Three words that can change the world

Hi, Habr!

We wanted to make our first material on this site a welcome one. There is still a lot of information of all kinds ahead, we will certainly tell you about the technical component of the project, but let me first explain what problems we are solving.

The best thing about this will tell what3words marketing director Jile Rees Jones. Like all members of the team, he often repeats the statement that there are no problems with maps in the world, but there are serious problems with addresses. On the pages of our blog you will repeatedly come across this statement. So:
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There are really problems with addresses in the world.

About 75% of the world's population suffers from ambiguous and confusing address systems, or from their complete absence.

These are 135 countries.

If during the past holidays Santa Claus used the same addresses that we use daily, 4 billion people would be left without gifts.



All this means that 11 million Brazilians cannot provide their address, they are not able to receive a bank card by mail, and they are completely invisible to the emergency services.

The problem concerns not only residential buildings. Without international standard designation of specific locations, water sources may not be found. Having addresses at schools, refugee camps and in slums can also be beneficial. All this is one of the many reasons why we started working on what3words.

In what3words, a unique combination of three words is used to denote a square of 3 meters by 3 meters, located anywhere in the world. Unlike many map services, w3w covers the entire globe with a grid of 57 trillion squares, which gives our system the opportunity to become a new standard for positioning.



Using words to indicate a location has certain advantages. You can find any point as accurately as possible, and most importantly, people can quickly share locations in communication, avoiding ambiguity. Using email addresses, postal codes, latitude and longitude, or short links from mobile devices can often only confuse and take time.



From a technical point of view, what3words is a tiny bit of code. The algorithm that allows all 57 trillion addresses to fit in any smartphone. The system works on different platforms and different languages.

Today there are a huge number of applications for navigation, and what3words can be integrated into each of them. The system is already used in car navigation, search services for travel companions and property, courier services, taxis, as well as for tourist routes.

Poor address systems hinder the further growth of developed countries, and literally pose a threat to life in the developing world.



We believe that the world would be better if people could share locations from any corner of it.

We are looking for partners and like-minded people who are ready to help in achieving this goal. In subsequent publications, we will talk in more detail about our API for developers, our research, integration and development of the project.

We are open for communication and cooperation, because we want to introduce the whole world to our “three words”.