The app/website What3words is pretty amazing. What3words has mapped the earth in 3 meter by 3 meter squares. Each square is identified by three words that have been permanently assigned to that square. The three word locations are available in 35 different languages.

The surface of the earth, divided into 3 meter squares, is 57 Trillion squares. What3words uses three word combinations drawn from 40,000 words. 40,000 words can produce 64 Trillion three word combinations – so 7 Trillion more than necessary.

Here’s a link to their website: What3words. You can play around with different locations and find the three unique words for where you are now or any other interesting location (On the website you can type in an address and then can slide the map around so the red box points to the desired square). I also suggest you engage the satellite view on the upper left of the map.

My office is located at the somewhat inappropriate sounding Plus.Extend.Deeper. The entrance to the Gateway Arch is at Simply.Friend.Given. The Great Pyramid at Giza is at Dreaming.Munch.Magnetic.

Imagine the uses for this technology. If you want to meet someone, instead of designating “near the entrance of the Enterprise Center” you could say meet me at Tidy.Deflection.Faded.

This would work great in crowded areas or in areas without notable landmarks. There are also stories of people rescued using What3words when lost in the woods: BBC Story. If needing to meet up with a friend at the Louvre you could decide to meet at helps.dimes.walkway:

Here’s a link to download the app: What3Words App. Having this app could save a life. Police and fire departments across the world think its a great idea. It takes away all ambiguity about where to respond to. Given that it is much more precise than current addresses, it is possible that What3words could replace addresses. Mongolia already has started What3words as addresses.