I think their big attraction is the 75% (their figure) of the world that doesn't have a functional address system. The added value in the UK is indeed zero. In some tribal village in Africa for example where an address might not get any better than "3rd mud hut on the left after the group of 3 trees" the idea of giving all the dwellings a simple address might open the world of e-commerce up to them. They will have an address to use, and Amazon's drones will be able to find them. Maybe not today, maybe not even tomorrow, but soon.
On 2015-11-30 12:40, Lester Caine wrote: > On 22/11/15 14:32, Colin Smale wrote: > >> By the way, just to be absolutely clear, I am not thinking of w3w as a >> coordinate system in OSM, but as an addressing attribute similar to >> postcodes. > > On one hand, one plugs in the three word location to their app and get a > coordinate which takes you approximately to where you want to be. One > needs the map to find the location in the first place, so if nothing is > mapped one needs a precise coordinate ... so one logs the coordinate as > well? I get the idea of 'what3words' but not while it has a page for > pricing! It is something that should be a free world standard and there > is nothing stopping the likes of HOT providing an alternative? But when > one adds proper support for 6500+ languages building something > inherently based on English is perhaps not the best starting point? All > the uses I am seeing for it ALSO have the coordinates so it seems > somewhat contrived trying to make it commercial in the first place? > > The second you NEED an app to convert from one 'system' to another is > there really any need to have some human readable name? Can I go to > amuses.sizing.stream without an app, when I can go to > uk.worcs.broadway.xxx by following signs?
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