Turn left at the hen house; Imagine living without an address

We take for granted the orderly grid of streets and signs and numbers that locate us in the world. But what if there were no addresses?

You could get email on your phone, and maybe you could order something online but you couldn’t get it delivered. You could tell someone where you live but not how to get there.

You could call a repairman but he wouldn’t be able to find you.

Four billion people in the world live in just that situation, but a new tech startup is changing that by giving every three-by-three meter spot in the world a three-word name.

What3words gives a memorable three-word name to every spot on the globe and then cross references that spot on maps using latitude and longitude.

This makes a huge difference in places like the Brazilian favelas. Favelas are the Brazilian name for shanty towns, spontaneous cities of make-do buildings. Favelas can have tens of thousands of people living in a colorful chaos of shacks, concrete homes, street vendors, and businesses. But the people living on the thousands of winding paths and streets don’t have addresses.

Local delivery services once used creative directions: Go past three pink houses, then a hen house, then a vendor, then turn left. That system worked, but things tended to change over time. Like a pink house might be painted blue. Enter What3words. Now, even in the thick of a favela, residents can put a three-word sticker on their door and a delivery service can find them.

This system is even in use in Denver where the fire department uses it to find its 50,000 hydrants. It’s also used in Lake Tahoe for ski rescue and by delivery companies who need to get packages to locations in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.

You may not know it but even if you have a conventional address, you also have a three-word address. Check it out at what3words.com.