What3words is a fascinating technology for mapping the earth. Instead of a postal address (which is country-specific and too coarse) or latitude and longitude (which is too hard to remember), one can use a simple three-word phrase. For example, my office is gates.fears.value [*] It is also 35°46’17.8″N 78°40’25.1″W. The latter is more precise but cannot be remember or easily shared. Also, notice the difference in URL complexity. The former is 36 characters long (17 not counting the domain) and the latter is 65 (50).

Each three-word phase uniquely identifies a 9 square meter patch of the earth. The advantage over postal addresses is obvious–you can identify the door of your building to take a delivery or you can specify the where you are in a park.

It is a novel way to map the earth. Read the white paper.

[*] If “gates” is taken as for Bill Gates/Microsoft, my office location has the added advantage of being a sentence that might even be true.