I understand the basic concept, ie dividing the planet up into small squares, each with a unique reference, but surely somehow you need to know the 3 words involved in order to find that precise location? And if you know the location to begin with, through eg Google Earth/apple maps etc, does it not become a bit redundant? If you’re in trouble somewhere and actually have a connection to the web/GPS, then surely a decent enough OS/map reference would suffice?
I’m not 5 but still confused! Thanks…
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The thing is that if you write a number down, it’s not very easy to spot if you got it right. Even for you, just writing it.
And the recipient has to deal with things like interpreting if you are one of those people who write difficult 1:s and 7:s or if your 6:s kind of look like your 5:s.
Numbers are easy to get wrong in verbal communication.
A complete word has the benefit that even if you spell it wrong, it’s not offering a hundred different alternatives to choose from (And w3w have thought about that and deliberately chosen words that are in many cases difficult to mix together with poor spelling.) which means that it helps to an extent with both poor literacy AND dyslexia.
Is it a perfect solution? No. Of course not.
When w3w came out, it was adapted by the postal service in…Mongolia, I think. Because they needed a better way to communicate nomading recipients addresses.
They are not good for your typical user case, but they are good enough to make a difference for some user cases that are hard to imagine if you don’t think about it.
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