It is the emergency services that are asking us NOT to use w3w....and if you can access w3w to obtain their 3 words, you can just as easily access Google Maps & retrieve the live location link?

 
<pedant (or dim)>6m x 3m?</pedant>

 
There's a whole bunch of issues with what3words and they often get tangled up.

I think at its core it's a decent enough idea, for the reasons Electric train has cited - it's easy to remember and communicate, and accurate enough for most purposes.

There are genuine technical problems with it, chiefly that the inventors didn't do a good enough job of removing 'soundalike' words. I suspect these are probably fixable - basically, you quietly stop offering those 3m x 3m squares which have soundalike words. That means you go down to 6m x 6m accuracy at that spot, which is still probably good enough.

But the real problem is that it's privately owned and copyrighted. Imagine a situation where your address was "11 High Street, Frogtown", but the only way for anyone to find out where that actually was involved paying money to Address Corporation, Inc. That's what3words. Their lawyers repeatedly threaten anyone who attempts to provide an alternative way of working out what3words addresses.

The address algorithm itself was invented and settled back in 2013. The entire work of their company since then has been marketing it. They have spent an eight-figure sum on this and barely recouped anything: w3w's losses are astronomical. The only plausible way forward for the company is to be bought by someone big - Amazon, Google, one of the major couriers - but so far they're not biting.

Up until now their PR strategy has involved giving free access to emergency services and the like, because it's generated lots of good free publicity. But there's no guarantee this will continue. Tying your location to what3words is making a bet that the next owner of the company won't start charging. That's not a bet I'd make.

 

piled.cuddling.throat for example. 

 
I must admit on reflection that an early low-tech version of something like w3w would have made my life somewhat easier 30 or so years ago.  I had to get packages delivered by road to London Underground stations, and certainly in those days quite a few stations had no post code or building number, or even any real presence at street level, just one or more staircases down from the pavement and possibly a decoy former entrance where lifts had been replaced by escalators in a different location.

 

2013, it really took off and used by the blue light services during the pandemic.


What 3 Words is not just a UK specific locator, also it is simpler than the 2 letter and 8 digit grid ref system and a lot less prone to errors over radio / mobile phone. 

When I was at work we needed to list access points and electrical substations on the railway for use when dealing with the blue light services, the options where
ELR - very railway specific that no one outside the industry recognises
Post Code - not all railway access points / equipment locations have a post code, are near an address with a post code or the nearest post code is on the oposite side of the railway which by road could be 10 miles away!
Grid ref - These are used but even the 2 letter 6 digit are prone to errors
Lat/long - Not practical
What 3 Words - after post codes this was the first choice by the blue light services, even if you are out by a few squares it far simpler and more reliable than G/R

 
Can be useful for summoning the emergency services.
I can remember when I was working a not insignificant fire at a factory. The person calling the FB gave what she believed to be the post code and the fire tenders turned up at the sorting office in the nearby city.

 
Having used OS grid references since I was a 10 year old Cub I've mostly regraded w3w as a solution looking for a problem. It's unnecessarily precise for most purposes and can't be adjusted; my front door and garden gate don't need different references to find my house, with another again if you're on the road instead of the pavement! OS can do 1km squares for a rough area, or 100m for greater accuracy by which stage you should generally be able to find the thing you're looking for.  Then there's Google Maps.  Both can be generated by phones just as easily as w3w and don't end up giving you words that you have to spell out.
w3w is perhaps the Trainline of mapping.  Not actually bad, but got where it has by good marketing and so coming to the attention of people who hadn't realised there was any other way of doing it.

 
Don't know how long that's been around but I only found out about it last week, by accident when I sent an "I'm here" text to my wife and my phone asked if I wanted to send a live location link. Nice feature.

 
Yes, very good pints are made.

If you have mobile reception to access w3w, why not access Google Maps & send a location link??!!

 
Clicked on those links - interesting, didn't know about all the problems with w3w

 
dont.privatise.addresses

 
Plankton.issue.hopeless.
Pilning Station ……….

 
fence.gross.bats - Buckingham Palace
beats.member.daily - Long Island, NY

 
Dartmouth 

 
I probably have too much time on my hands, but came across this combination of words for the steam railway ticket office in Kingswear Dartmouth (of course) - vocal.stooping.paramedic

Anyone else found some standout ones?