The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

by Deirdre Mask

Sheldrick thought it was a problem he could tackle. With a mathematician friend, a fellow chess-player from Eton, he came up with an ingenious idea—divide the world into squares, 3 meters by 3 meters. Instead of using coordinates, they decided to use words, which are easier to remember than a string of numbers. Three words per square: 40,000 words, 64 trillion 3-word combinations. And so what3words was born. Every spot on the world’s surface now has its own what3words address. It’s easy to look up on the company’s website or on its free app. The middle of the Taj Mahal is at doubt.bombard.alley. The Eiffel Tower is at daunt ing.evolves.nappy. What3words can lead you to places without traditional addresses. The middle of the White House Rose Garden is army.likes.jukebox. The playground slide my kids love to careen down is at shot.pokers.clock. The uses of the technology are endless. Want to find your friends sitting under a tree for a picnic? Use a what3words address. Need to pin exactly where on a sidewalk you took that picture? Or find your Airbnb tree house in Costa Rica? What3words can help with that, too. The technology has more serious uses. The Rhino Refugee Camp in Uganda is using what3words to help people find their way to the camp’s churches, mosques, markets, and doctors’ office. The Mongolian postal service is using the addresses to send mail to nomadic families. And Dr. Louw now uses the three words to find patients in the townships of South Africa.