Dawn Wing can now find you using 3 words

[Jamie McKane]

Dawn Wing can now find you using 3 words

Express parcel business Dawn Wing has partnered with what3words, which is developing a global standard that can be used to simplify delivery to rural areas.

The what3words system splits South Africa into 3x3m blocks and gives each of these squares a unique three-word address.

 

[Herr der Verboten]

"now" is rather stupid seeing this has been going on for a while.

But cool nonetheless. I've had zero issues so far with DW compared to Fedex.

 

[Thor]

w3w is cool and all, but they need to work on their API options (Expensive too)

 

[Swa]

How long before we have to change the words because someone isn't happy with their "symbolism"?

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

nice idea, sure the big boys like Fedex and DHL and UPS have better systems.

 

[HavocXphere]

which is developing pushing a global standard patented proprietary system that can be used to simplify delivery to rural areas.

FTFY

Not only is it patented - it's patented by a company that is quite lawyer trigger happy when others tried to implement it on their own as a clean-room engineering effort.

Why anyone would want to embrace being locked in to that and paying for the privilege is beyond me

w3w is cool and all, but they need to work on their API options (Expensive too)

WhatFreeWords

It's like <300 lines of code...

 

[Iwojima]

I get that this is better than a physical address in many cases, but why not use GPS co-ords?

 

[Gordon_R]

Sadly, MyBB regularly falls for these kinds of hype stories...

Finding locations is the least part of their problem. I am frequently called to assist with deliveries where the resident is not at home, or not answering their phone...

 

[markings]

When I tried it it never cam up with the same 3 words for the identical place.
I also wonder why they chose difficult words which the recipients may enter wrong, especially if the words are given verbally. Like the example dripped.proverb.arranging or woodcutting.explicating.fame leaves quite a few possibilities for wrong entry.
Lastly, it would be good if the 3 words could make an sensible 'sentence' and not just sound like random words.

Anyway, what about Google Plus codes? Not quite as accurate but easy and short.

 

[MrGray]

what3words has been around forever, and every few years the press trots out a few stories like this. Doesn't really seem to be gaining traction, though, and especially not for deliveries.

Far better to have a delivery go to the actual street/unit/apartment address than a location, especially if you live in an area with a lot of adjacent buildings or in a complex - bit hard for someone to find me in an apartment block with only my 3x3m location instead of the apartment number - which I think is the main reason this never took off.

Anyway, these days if an app hasn't already worked out your address automatically, you can simply start typing your address in most apps and boom the rest of it comes up instantly, you click on it and away you go (which is more than I can say for the what3words website that seems completely unable to locate me even with location turned on in my browser, and even after I typed the address).

 

[Herr der Verboten]

Meanwhile...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1325746973757091841

 

[Itsa Trap]

Fok my nellie?

 

[HavocXphere]

I get that this is better than a physical address in many cases, but why not use GPS co-ords?

GPS coords are a pain to memorize & share verbally.

It definitely has merit as an idea and would be awesome if it was truly open and could be widely adopted & used freely by all like coordinates

 

[markings]

GPS coords are a pain to memorize & share verbally.

It definitely has merit as an idea and would be awesome if it was truly open and could be widely adopted & used freely by all like coordinates

That is why Google has Google Plus code, like XYZA+7G.
Accuracy is about 30m although they claim it can be as good as 3m but I have not found any information how to achieve that.

 

[WollieVerstege]

GPS coords are a pain to memorize & share verbally.

It definitely has merit as an idea and would be awesome if it was truly open and could be widely adopted & used freely by all like coordinates

Well the 3 word for my location is so complicated I dont know how I as a Afrikaans oke is going to be expected to memorise them, in fact I had to look the one word up to see if it is even a real word.
Further, how am I going to transfer that info in an emergency to a 30% on the other side of the phone in a call center when I don't even know how to spell the words myself.

 

[Swa]

Well the 3 word for my location is so complicated I dont know how I as a Afrikaans oke is going to be expected to memorise them, in fact I had to look the one word up to see if it is even a real word.
Further, how am I going to transfer that info in an emergency to a 30% on the other side of the phone in a call center when I don't even know how to spell the words myself.

Exactly, last time was "what's your neighbouring street?"
This time, "what's your neighbouring 3 word location?"