Addresses and Google Maps

[Scam]

We just moved house and discovered there are 3 other roads in neighbouring boroughs with exactly the same name. One of them has a very similar postcode, which if you start typing our address as XX Road Name always come up first in a list (and auto completes London on the end for you) so you don't know it's wrong. Hilariously, our mortgage provider did this on our new online banking account and managed to send paperwork to the wrong address! Currently going through a formal complaint with the ombudsman now for data breach

 

[Deleted User 298457]

What3Words is deliberately designed to make it impossible to determine what 3 words will apply to its largely arbitrary subdivisions of the surface of the earth. Make a single letter error in communicating the word and it can point to somewhere on the other side of the world. Contrast that to any sensible location system, such as GPS co-ordinates or OS map divisions where a small error is going to point to somewhere close to the user, and people with local knowledge can use their knowledge of the area to identify and correct errors back to where the person actually is. It's popularity hasn't come from its design or performance, but from aggressive marketing by the private company that owns it, and that company needs to obscure the design of the map in order to make it something they can profit from.

Any phone that can run what3words can also run OS locate which almost certainly a better tool for the job.



Experts who've looked into its structure found serious problems with its design, and Mountain Rescue have had major issues with it.

your outrage with what3words is humorous.

Here is a similar example with nothing a GPS coordinate incorrectly:

Mali: 21.7604839 / -0.32805805555555556

and just one single digit wrong:
Spain: 41.7604839 / -0.32805805555555556

I'd say it is a lot easier to note down minutes and seconds incorrectly versus speaking 3 common words. It certainly has some improvements from the link you posted though - I don't buy all of the homophones they have listed out but I do buy enough to at least partially agree.

 

[Mr Jack]

your outrage with what3words is humorous.

Here is a similar example with nothing a GPS coordinate incorrectly:

Mali: 21.7604839 / -0.32805805555555556

and just one single digit wrong:
Spain: 41.7604839 / -0.32805805555555556

Right, but if you call mountain rescue with a digit wrong and it points to Spain, they know you got it wrong, and they can use local knowledge to correct any errors you made. With what3words they can't find out what words are nearby.

 

[Deleted User 298457]

Right, but if you call mountain rescue with a digit wrong and it points to Spain, they know you got it wrong, and they can use local knowledge to correct any errors you made. With what3words they can't find out what words are nearby.

Fair, although the website you linked seemed to manage it.

 

[cheesefest]

We just moved house and discovered there are 3 other roads in neighbouring boroughs with exactly the same name. One of them has a very similar postcode, which if you start typing our address as XX Road Name always come up first in a list (and auto completes London on the end for you) so you don't know it's wrong. Hilariously, our mortgage provider did this on our new online banking account and managed to send paperwork to the wrong address! Currently going through a formal complaint with the ombudsman now for data breach

Leeds has many roads together with the same prefix and end with different suffixes- Road, Drive, Terrace, Green, Crescent etc. I lived in one of these. Often get stuff through the post for others living at the same number but different streets. Esp with stuff such as cards and parcels from friends/family. “What’s Dave’s address Marston something?” “It’s Drive” When Dave lives in Marston Grove! Even postcodes were sequential!

I always put “not at this address” and pop mail back into post box. As at least the organisation can do something. Hate people binning this.

I used to work at a bank at the branch nearest to me. One day, I came back from work to find a large envelope with a different name. The following day, I forgot to post the envelope back in the post box. Good job I didn’t do this as I served the customer and recognise the name as was unusual. Asked them do they live at a (number first part of name) yes they did. Had a letter with their address. This envelope contained some vital paperwork for her late mum’s estate!!! They did complain.

 

[Jean-F]

Seeing as I've spent most of my life living in a house without a number that isn't on a street... no I don't find it bizarre at all. What's bizarre is a majority of people in this thread seem to think it's impossible for properties like this to exist when in fact the number of them is basically countless.

In this day and age, when a website asks for your post code, which gives them your street/road and a list of numbers, from which you nominate 99, they’ll know your whereabouts, or in your case giving them AB12 3CD might take them straight to your door, but I was talking about 1979-80, when SatNavs/GPS and iPhones were a thing of the future.
From how you describe your house, unless I’m missing the glaringly obvious, if you’d ordered e.g. a vacuum cleaner from a company where I was employed as a driver in 1979, the warehouse would have given me the box and told me to deliver it, I’d ask “To where?” and they’d have just shrugged.
I may have asked, “What street, and what number?” they’d have said, “Your guess is as good as mine.”
That to me would have been bizarre, even more bizarre would have been you wondering why it never arrived.

Just give them what the OS have given that particular part of the road.

e.g.





The street name for Buckingham Palace is The Mall.

I have zero desire to be contentious, but The Mall is just a wide avenue that runs from Trafalgar Square toward Buckingham Palace, terminating at Queen’s Gardens, which leads to Constitution Hill, or Spur Road which leads to Buckingham Gate.
The recognised address for Buckingham Palace is simply SW1A 1AA.

 

[Mr Jack]

From how you describe your house, unless I’m missing the glaringly obvious, if you’d ordered e.g. a vacuum cleaner from a company where I was employed as a driver in 1979, the warehouse would have given me the box and told me to deliver it, I’d ask “To where?” and they’d have just shrugged.
I may have asked, “What street, and what number?” they’d have said, “Your guess is as good as mine.”
That to me would have been bizarre, even more bizarre would have been you wondering why it never arrived.

Would you not have rung up? I remember that happening a lot. Also, of course, there were a lot less deliveries, and parcels came with your postman instead of some exploited and stressed "self-employed" driver.

 

[Feek]

Right, but if you call mountain rescue with a digit wrong and it points to Spain, they know you got it wrong, and they can use local knowledge to correct any errors you made. With what3words they can't find out what words are nearby.

If you call mountain rescue and give them three words that point to a small island in the south pacific, don’t you think the operator would question that when they type them into their system? Or would they blindly send someone off there?

 

[dl8860]

In this day and age, when a website asks for your post code, which gives them your street/road and a list of numbers, from which you nominate 99, they’ll know your whereabouts, or in your case giving them AB12 3CD might take them straight to your door, but I was talking about 1979-80, when SatNavs/GPS and iPhones were a thing of the future.
From how you describe your house, unless I’m missing the glaringly obvious, if you’d ordered e.g. a vacuum cleaner from a company where I was employed as a driver in 1979, the warehouse would have given me the box and told me to deliver it, I’d ask “To where?” and they’d have just shrugged.
I may have asked, “What street, and what number?” they’d have said, “Your guess is as good as mine.”
That to me would have been bizarre, even more bizarre would have been you wondering why it never arrived.

.

So how did people at these addresses ever get things delivered before satnav and GPS? It can't be a bizarre proposition, if it's something that has been happening for hundreds of years already.

 

[Mr Jack]

If you call mountain rescue and give them three words that point to a small island in the south pacific, don’t you think the operator would question that when they type them into their system? Or would they blindly send someone off there?

Yeah, sure, but a great many times a single small, easily made error in what3words points to somewhere near by. That's specifically called out as a problem by mountain rescue. And, yeah, you can make errors with other systems too, but they're usually easy to detect and correct. 'Slip' and 'flip' are harder to distinguish than two and four. And that can be improved through use the phonetic alphabet which uses slightly altered pronunciations for the numbers which the operator can use when repeating numbers back to make errors easier to catch.

Really the advantage of what3words is that they're more memorable, but that's not actually useful in a rescue situation. A better designed, open, system could probably do better than both.

 

[cheesefest]

Knitted.foremost.screaming is near Maidwell, Northants.

Knitted.foremost.scream is NW Alaska.

so missing ing can make such a huge difference

 

[Feek]

so missing ing can make such a huge difference

Yeah, you're right. The Amazon delivery driver who's going to Maidwell, Northants is going to go and get on a aeroplane and fly to Alaska.

Or the police who answer the 999 call from someone near Maidwell, Northants are going to call the Mounties in Alaska to respond.

Perhaps they'd just ask for confirmation.

 

[Reuben klang]

Yeah, you're right. The Amazon delivery driver who's going to Maidwell, Northants is going to go and get on a aeroplane and fly to Alaska.

Or the police who answer the 999 call from someone near Maidwell, Northants are going to call the Mounties in Alaska to respond.

Perhaps they'd just ask for confirmation.

Amazing, might just start doing transatlantic calls for all delivery’s. No point using local services.

 

[whitecrook]

Yes but if i have a what three words location how can i find out and even further, verify the location? I HAVE to use what 3 words server/database ie their proprietary system . This is bad.

 

[Jean-F]

So how did people at these addresses ever get things delivered before satnav and GPS? It can't be a bizarre proposition, if it's something that has been happening for hundreds of years already.

You probably think that I’m being deliberately obtuse or just dumb, but I’ve no idea how I’d find a house with no number, on a street with no name before SatNavs were invented.
Your location is given as Worcester, so perhaps you say to delivery companies, “it’s a couple of miles from Kidderminster, near Hoobrook, just off the A422, opposite a duck pond, next to the Red Lion pub”
Were I the CEO of the company supplying you, I’d be inclined to say that I can’t afford to have a truck running around the boonies looking for a duck pond, when it could have completed ten deliveries to normal addresses in that time, how about you come and collect it at a discount?

 

[dl8860]

You probably think that I’m being deliberately obtuse or just dumb, but I’ve no idea how I’d find a house with no number, on a street with no name before SatNavs were invented.
Your location is given as Worcester, so perhaps you say to delivery companies, “it’s a couple of miles from Kidderminster, near Hoobrook, just off the A422, opposite a duck pond, next to the Red Lion pub”
Were I the CEO of the company supplying you, I’d be inclined to say that I can’t afford to have a truck running around the boonies looking for a duck pond, when it could have completed ten deliveries to normal addresses in that time, how about you come and collect it at a discount?

I don't think that, it is a bit of a head scratcher really. I think the answer is as someone said above, deliveries used to be handled almost solely by the local postman, who just knew the area. And for directing friends or other guests to your house, you'd give them worded directions rather than just an address.

 

[Jean-F]

I don't think that, it is a bit of a head scratcher really. I think the answer is as someone said above, deliveries used to be handled almost solely by the local postman, who just knew the area. And for directing friends or other guests to your house, you'd give them worded directions rather than just an address.

Thanks for understanding that I’m not completely contrary, I have a lot of respect for you and your input, let’s find something else to mildly disagree about, and let this one die a natural death, deal?

 

[whitecrook]

anyone remember when ordering stuff via mail order you would have to wait for a week or even more. You'd probably have sent your order in via a coupon or a form. If you used a telephone that was pretty advanced. Entered in the item codes, catalogue numbers on to the tear out form. Enclosed and SAE if you wanted some kind of feedback/confirmation. Sent it away. Waited and hoped it would appear in time for Xmas. Or whatever you were doing. Nowadays, people get upset if they can't get there chinese plastic tat delived next day. The courier gets upset if you don't answer the door in 0.2 seconds.

 

[cheesefest]

A few years back, a relative moved into her new property which was part of a new conversion of a school. which was split up into 5 homes. She and fellow residents had a terrible time getting her post. Her address is - for example, 4 School Mews, School Road. One call centre worker said to her when she puts in her postcode, she selected 4 School Mews and the system used reverted the address to 4 School Road. As SM and SR share the same postcode. Fortunately, the road has c.20 properties on it. So the poor residents of 1-5 School Road got the mail for 1-5 School Mews. She and the other 4 residents complained to RM about this. The RM's solution was a simple one, adding a house number. So it became 4 School Mews, 21 School Road - the school is at the end of the road. The issues with the post ended almost immediately.