6 ms·

It reminds me of what3words, using three words to describe any location on earth. I really hoped that could catch on.

by Gathering6678 6mo ago

katbyte 6mo ago
what3words Is terrible and search and rescue teams are actively against people using it.
- Gathering6678 6mo ago
  Care to elaborate why? I'm just curious since I didn't know (1) there was actually any kind of serious usage, or (2) there was pushback from rescue team...
  - katbyte 6mo ago
    Yep local police partnered with them causing local SAR to go “don’t use it” https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/whistler-search-and-rescue-does-not-support-the-use-of-the-what3words-app-4695107 https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/whistler-search... https://globalnews.ca/news/8258671/north-shore-rescue-what3words-geolocation-app/ https://globalnews.ca/news/8258671/north-shore-rescue-what3w... Basically the company wants to make money off it so are pushing it and it’s problematic due to it being less easy to use then standard gps cords, words sound the same, and most people have no idea what it is (and nor should they learn lat long)
  - ryankrage77 6mo ago
    W3W is very aggressive about protecting their IP, they don't want it to be a standard anyone can use like lat/long. They advertise it as being useful for search/rescue as you can provide a precise location over an unclear voice channel. They conveniently ignore that speaking numbers is clearer than speaking random words. I'm sure there's more I'm unaware of.
  - ianburrell 6mo ago
    One reason is that there are a lot of similar words in the dictionary. It is easy to mishear the wrong location especially when they are close together. Some of the words are long and complicated. Another is that they are random which means can't navigate from the codes. They are missing feature of some codes that can have variable length for variable precision.
- iso1631 6mo ago
  > what3words Is terrible Yes > search and rescue teams are actively against people using it. Sadly no https://media.neas.nhs.uk/news/3-words-can-save-lives https://media.neas.nhs.uk/news/3-words-can-save-lives
  - katbyte 6mo ago
    The company pushes it hard and some fall for the marketing But locally here most SAR teams are against it https://globalnews.ca/news/8258671/north-shore-rescue-what3words-geolocation-app/ https://globalnews.ca/news/8258671/north-shore-rescue-what3w... https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/whistler-search-and-rescue-does-not-support-the-use-of-the-what3words-app-4695107 https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/whistler-search...
  - c-c-c-c-c 6mo ago
    seems like they’re quite against it going by what i found on reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/searchandrescue/comments/1d63v94/what3words_what_the_hell/ https://www.reddit.com/r/searchandrescue/comments/1d63v94/wh...
wzdd 6mo ago
Kind of like what3words, except what3words uses three words which you stand a chance of remembering, whereas this produced, for an address similar to mine, "Miniature nerves eulogize gaily inside erect lion yet able stables hiss the conclusive consultation."

It reminds me of what3words, using three words to describe any location on earth. I really hoped that could catch on.

katbyte 6mo ago

what3words Is terrible and search and rescue teams are actively against people using it.

Gathering6678 6mo ago
Care to elaborate why? I'm just curious since I didn't know (1) there was actually any kind of serious usage, or (2) there was pushback from rescue team...
- katbyte 6mo ago
  Yep local police partnered with them causing local SAR to go “don’t use it” https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/whistler-search-and-rescue-does-not-support-the-use-of-the-what3words-app-4695107 https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/whistler-search... https://globalnews.ca/news/8258671/north-shore-rescue-what3words-geolocation-app/ https://globalnews.ca/news/8258671/north-shore-rescue-what3w... Basically the company wants to make money off it so are pushing it and it’s problematic due to it being less easy to use then standard gps cords, words sound the same, and most people have no idea what it is (and nor should they learn lat long)
- ryankrage77 6mo ago
  W3W is very aggressive about protecting their IP, they don't want it to be a standard anyone can use like lat/long. They advertise it as being useful for search/rescue as you can provide a precise location over an unclear voice channel. They conveniently ignore that speaking numbers is clearer than speaking random words. I'm sure there's more I'm unaware of.
- ianburrell 6mo ago
  One reason is that there are a lot of similar words in the dictionary. It is easy to mishear the wrong location especially when they are close together. Some of the words are long and complicated. Another is that they are random which means can't navigate from the codes. They are missing feature of some codes that can have variable length for variable precision.
iso1631 6mo ago
> what3words Is terrible Yes > search and rescue teams are actively against people using it. Sadly no https://media.neas.nhs.uk/news/3-words-can-save-lives https://media.neas.nhs.uk/news/3-words-can-save-lives
- katbyte 6mo ago
  The company pushes it hard and some fall for the marketing But locally here most SAR teams are against it https://globalnews.ca/news/8258671/north-shore-rescue-what3words-geolocation-app/ https://globalnews.ca/news/8258671/north-shore-rescue-what3w... https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/whistler-search-and-rescue-does-not-support-the-use-of-the-what3words-app-4695107 https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/whistler-search...
- c-c-c-c-c 6mo ago
  seems like they’re quite against it going by what i found on reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/searchandrescue/comments/1d63v94/what3words_what_the_hell/ https://www.reddit.com/r/searchandrescue/comments/1d63v94/wh...

wzdd 6mo ago

Kind of like what3words, except what3words uses three words which you stand a chance of remembering, whereas this produced, for an address similar to mine, "Miniature nerves eulogize gaily inside erect lion yet able stables hiss the conclusive consultation."