What3words

I’m not all sure how many people have heard about What3words but thought I could shed a little light and hope you might think about putting the ‘app’ on your smart phones. For me walking the hills what3words is just another backup if anything should go wrong and emergency services are needed, perish the thought, either when I’m walking alone or with a group. My husband can even find exactly where I am if I share my location with him. It’s also fun too, have a see what words are used in your own house, in the kitchen, in the garden, in the lounge, in the bathroom even!

These are extracts taken from Wikipedia:-

Founded by Chris Sheldrick, Jack Waley-Cohen, Mohan Ganesalingam, and Michael Dent, what3words was launched in July 2013. Sheldrick and Ganesalingam originally conceived the idea after Sheldrick struggled to get equipment and bands to event locations on time due to inadequate address information while working as a concert organiser. The company was incorporated in March 2013 and a patent application for the core technology filed in April 2013.

What3words uses a grid of the world made up of 57 x1012 squares of 3 metres by 3 metres. Each square has been given an address composed of three words. The addresses are available in 43 languages according to the what3words online map (as of May 2020), and the addresses are not translations of the same words.

As of October 2019, 75 English and Welsh emergency services have signed up to the system In February 2020 four walkers stranded on Ben Nevis in Scotland used the app to provide rescuers with details of their location.