Gallery: Three-Word Phrases---and a Map---Can Find Anyone Anywhere
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The United Nations estimates that 70 percent of the world is unaddressed, and struggles because of it. A few geo-coding companies are trying to solve the problem.
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What3words overlays the planet with a grid of 57 trillion plots of cubicle-sized land, and uses an algorithm to assign each of them a three-word phrase.
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The schema is getting some traction, and this week, global shipping provider Aramex led a $8.5-million round of funding for What3words, and will use the system to fulfill e-commerce orders in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
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“Words are so much easier to remember,” says Giles Rhys Jones, the company’s CMO. “But digits, your chances of remembering them is zero.”
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Consider the password to your wireless router. You’re simply not going to memorize a 16-character string of alphanumeric code. But you can remember a four-word in-joke you share with your roommates.
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