Mind. Blown.
Addresses and Google Maps
- Thread starter dl8860
- Start date
Man of Honour
I live in rural Mid Wales, my address is
House Name
Hamlet
Town 12 Miles Away
Postcode
I'm over half a mile down a gated lane with about 8 houses on it, most delivery drivers find me now but I have a screenshot of google maps with my house pinned and a nearby village visible, that works for everyone else.
was gonna say same thing.... or if you know Maps isnt accurate tell them where its wrong (both visitors AND Google maps)
Soldato
A place where I used to live had the address of xxxx Avenue, which was a right turn before my home - yet was on yyyy Drive. Sat nav always said to turn right!
Caporegime
I grew up in a house like that. Down the end of a half mile dirt track. God knows how delivery drivers cope these days. I suppose a least there were only three roads in the village.
Another reason that privatising delivery was a bad idea.
(Huh. If you put the actual address into Google maps it can't find it, but the way it puts the pin is like 50m off and you'd probably find it from it anyway)
Caporegime
what3words is a private company that provides deliberately obscured location information.
Soldato
yes. what3words use should be discouraged.
quite a few houses I lived in have no number just a house name and a village name. Never really thought about it, packages get delivered fine...
The front gates of Buckingham Palace are on Spur Road facing Queen’s Gardens, Constitution Hill is on one side of the Palace, and Buckingham Gate on the other side, leading to Buckingham Palace Road, no idea about Blenheim Palace.
You don’t think that it’s bizarre to ask for something to be delivered to a house with no number, on a street with no name?
In the very late seventies, before I did the Knowledge and became a London taxi driver, I worked a seasonal job driving an oil tanker for a large fuel oil distributor during one winter.
My “round” was big houses in the Surrey stockbroker belt, I would pick the truck up near Blackwell Tunnel and leave the depot around 6.00 p.m., it was already dark by then.
Some of these houses were on roads like Farm Lane, or Chestnut Road, and had names not numbers, “The Oaks”, “Three Larches” etc.
If they had a name post at all it was generally hidden in bushes or shrubbery at the drive entrance.
I would drive along with a torch trying to find the addresses, this was before mobile phones and Google maps.
I might go out with five addresses to deliver heating oil to, and find one or two, the others went without, I’d return to the depot and tell them that I couldn’t find the houses.
After a month the transport manager said that he didn’t think that I was suited to the job, I said that I didn’t think that the job was suited to me, and I was glad to quit, a week later I started driving for the Post Office.
Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Mar 2013
- Posts
- 9,161
Can't say I've ever come across it either, I just assumed a number and your postcode is all that's needed to find you. I think the stately home Buckingham pace is a bad example, I'm sure a delivery driver wouldnt miss either of those
.
.
Soldato
I had this issue when moving into this new build. It wasn't on google maps, and then when it was put on, they put it on about 1km away! I had to report it about 10 times on google for them to do it though, which finally happened.
Caporegime
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.
Soldato
My road has a number in the street name in word form. Moved in from new. The poor residents that used to live in the same house number as the one in the street name used to get a lot of mail for others for the first year (example 4 Four Seasons Court) As our postcode didn’t pop up when entering postcode on websites and systems that call centres use. That meant our house numbers got dropped.
I felt sorry for the resident. He contacted the sorting office and they sent a letter to each property asking the name(s) for each resident so can deliver the mail to the right property.
I felt sorry for the resident. He contacted the sorting office and they sent a letter to each property asking the name(s) for each resident so can deliver the mail to the right property.
- Joined
- 30 Jul 2006
- Posts
- 12,129
I believe that the Emergency Services use/can use what3words but I don't believe that it is available on any SatNav device . . . perhaps due to a licensing restriction?
It is also more long-winded and maybe more prone to input errors than a PostCode and House Number?
Soldato
Twice I've lived in houses with the same sort of address scheme as that, both in the countryside with just a house name and village (which was over a mile from my house) for a location but the post codes put you within 100m of the houses so, unless the postie/delivery person was new to the area, you'd get things just fine.
What do you mean by obscured? What is the reasoning for saying it should be discouraged?
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.
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Sep 2020
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- 3,557
Never had an issue with what3words either.
could be a life saver.
could be a life saver.
Caporegime
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.
Soldato
On QI, some places in Africa use what3words for addresses. Even a cafe used their W3W as it’s name. Hopefully its not mouldy.unfit.cooks (actual words they use)
Caporegime
I am enjoying dl8860's outrage because (1) it seems genuine, somehow and (2) he is about to go all Falling Down on us 
Addresses: serious business.
Addresses: serious business.