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GPS BOAT LOCATION ON STEROIDS!! PIN POINT YOUR BOAT!


Kinver Canopies

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1 hour ago, Kinver Canopies said:

Oh, Does than mean that they're onto us  and will start charging a fortune if we find another customer ;)   

 

But at the rate that this thread is going I some how doubt it's going to take over the canal network.  So maddietaylor87  Is there some magical bunff I should be putting on our website to make it all good with what3words.  Or a simple introduction to It that will help spread the word.  I'm really impressed at how smooth it is.  Anything we can do to get it out there.

There sure is :) I'll email you guys some magical bunff! 

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1 hour ago, maddietaylor87 said:

By being completely open source, plus codes have no way to make revenue at all, which is why nobody has heard of them (outside geospatial industry).  

I'm not sure that follows. OpenStreetMap is open source and is now used by Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and a few other little-known names... you don't have to have revenue to get big, that's just how w3w have chosen to structure themselves.

 

Plus codes have only just been integrated into Google's core maps product and I've no doubt that in itself will give them a massive boost.

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Just now, ditchcrawler said:

How much memory does that use up?

It's an algorithm, so there's no database or downloaded list of 3 word addresses (there are 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares in the world, so that definitely wouldn't be an option!). It's basically a piece of code that takes the GPS coordinates that your phone already knows and converts them to the sequence of 3 words. 

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2 hours ago, maddietaylor87 said:

By being completely open source, plus codes have no way to make revenue at all, which is why nobody has heard of them

Well as the majority of the Internet, Smart phones, Set Top Boxes and many more stuff runs on open source and standards it's a wonder that we make any money at all in that industry!   

 

Oh look, we are using open standards now to communicate to each other, if that was patented the Internet would be a very different place.

Edited by Robbo
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3 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

I broke down on the A11 near Thetford a couple of weeks back, I struggled to get a phone signal to speak to the AA let alone internet

That'll teach you to go to Thetford!  We're you collecting a new toilet?

2 hours ago, Richard Fairhurst said:

Google Maps now has a little "Plus code" (starts with a + sign) which does exactly the same as what3words.

 

what3words is patented and lawyered up to the hilt, so as soon as it becomes popular, they can start charging you and others (e.g. application developers) for the right to use it. It's a massive scam and pretty much everyone I know in the geospatial/mapping industry is rightly wary of it.

 

Plus codes are (unusually for Google!) an open standard and not charged for.

Plus codes on google maps seem to only work for listed locations on google maps.  You can't just put a pin on the map and get a plus code.  Or am I doing it wrong?

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6 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

what3words is patented and lawyered up to the hilt, so as soon as it becomes popular, they can start charging you and others (e.g. application developers) for the right to use it. It's a massive scam and pretty much everyone I know in the geospatial/mapping industry is rightly wary of it.

Pretty much what Google are doing with maps now.   Reason why canalplan now using another system!

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2 minutes ago, Robbo said:

Well as the majority of the Internet, Smart phones, Set Top Boxes and many more stuff runs on open source and standards it's a wonder that we make any money at all in that industry!

Google (and the majority of the internet) makes money by selling the data they collect and advertising...  not by providing location and mapping solutions. what3words charges some larger companies (not app users - it's free for them) so that they can develop good apps and tech integration packages, as well as marketing to spread awareness.  

I guess we'll just see in a year which solution (if any) has entered common use.

 

But if I have to choose between navigating to GRC8+CJ or ///vine.couches.herds. ... I know which looks easier to use for me.

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6 minutes ago, maddietaylor87 said:

Google (and the majority of the internet) makes money by selling the data they collect and advertising...  not by providing location and mapping solutions. what3words charges some larger companies (not app users - it's free for them) so that they can develop good apps and tech integration packages, as well as marketing to spread awareness.  

I guess we'll just see in a year which solution (if any) has entered common use.

 

But if I have to choose between navigating to GRC8+CJ or ///vine.couches.herds. ... I know which looks easier to use for me.

Google servers runs on open source software, if that didn’t exist they wouldn’t.    Same for other big firms like amazon.   Majority of the Internet infrastructure is open standards and open source, Ie HTML is a open standard.   The Internet wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for open source or standards that are patent free for anyone to use.

1 minute ago, Robbo said:

GRC8+CJ or ///vine.couches.herds. ... I know which looks easier to use fo

Well the GRC8+CJ looks easier!    Over the phone with 3 words  :  can you spell that please?

Edited by Robbo
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1 minute ago, doratheexplorer said:

I never said that!

Google maps have started to charge (or charge more) after the system got popular.  The same will happen with 3 words.   Still free for us to use via the app, but the developers of systems are now been charged if they want it on their site.

Edited by Robbo
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2 hours ago, maddietaylor87 said:

Google (and the majority of the internet) makes money by selling the data they collect and advertising...  not by providing location and mapping solutions. what3words charges some larger companies (not app users - it's free for them) so that they can develop good apps and tech integration packages, as well as marketing to spread awareness.  

The problem is that (as explained by @Anonymaps, inter alia, on Twitter) that what3words isn't going to become profitable any time soon on its current burn rate and revenue. It's owned by venture capitalists who'll want a return on their investment - sooner rather than later. That return will almost certainly come from selling w3w for $$$ to a large company: there's no other exit that makes sense right now.

 

So, ask yourself who that will be. Amazon? Sure, you can use w3w for free as long as you sell your products on our site (for which we take n% commission) and use our Logistics provider. One of the big mapping companies like HERE or TomTom? They'll put a clause in that says "must be used in conjunction with one of our maps" (which you have to pay for). Uber? Mmm, that'll work out well. And so on.

 

w3w is nice and fluffy now because it's spending other people's money. When the venture capitalists want their return, people will regret building their products on it - just as people are now regretting building entire businesses around Google Maps before they massively hiked up their fees.

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6 hours ago, maddietaylor87 said:

Google (and the majority of the internet) makes money by selling the data they collect and advertising...  not by providing location and mapping solutions. what3words charges some larger companies (not app users - it's free for them) so that they can develop good apps and tech integration packages, as well as marketing to spread awareness.  

I guess we'll just see in a year which solution (if any) has entered common use.

 

But if I have to choose between navigating to GRC8+CJ or ///vine.couches.herds. ... I know which looks easier to use for me.

 

Google kept maps free until a lot of people had built entire solutions on them and then changed it with a couple of months notice - Canalplan got a £200 bill for one month of maps rendering - we were not alone and our bill was not large.

 

 

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Revenue models, applicability and all that stuff aside I like w3w for its entertainment value.  The bathroom in our house is bunny.spray.bits and my mums house/garden is parent.bungalows.ideal :)

 

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Unless I'm in a first class signal area, my dingle dangle dongle doesn't always register the location. My phone does though.

 

We always think what would happen if something happened to me and Mrs Nightwatch needed to call the emergency services and give a location. I say in a whisper in case she's listening, she not very bright with techno stuff.

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Having tried this mapping site it is effective but it does strike me as having all your eggs in one basket, if the site goes down for any reason you are stuffed. Being a bit old school and coming from sailing I still prefer good old Lat Long, my current location is N52.523737 W002.0760635 which I can feed into Google maps,Gridreference Finder and Streetmap and all of them will pinpoint my location as accurately as what3words.

I've saved it as a favourite should I have need to use it but I like to have other options.

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11 hours ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

Having tried this mapping site it is effective but it does strike me as having all your eggs in one basket, if the site goes down for any reason you are stuffed. Being a bit old school and coming from sailing I still prefer good old Lat Long, my current location is N52.523737 W002.0760635 which I can feed into Google maps,Gridreference Finder and Streetmap and all of them will pinpoint my location as accurately as what3words.

I've saved it as a favourite should I have need to use it but I like to have other options.

 

Just looked you up on W3W and you really need to use it...  It's the best one yet.

 

///giant.risk.sunk

 

That's actually your location.  ;) 

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On 19/10/2018 at 00:10, Wanderer Vagabond said:

Having tried this mapping site it is effective but it does strike me as having all your eggs in one basket, if the site goes down for any reason you are stuffed. Being a bit old school and coming from sailing I still prefer good old Lat Long, my current location is N52.523737 W002.0760635 which I can feed into Google maps,Gridreference Finder and Streetmap and all of them will pinpoint my location as accurately as what3words.

I've saved it as a favourite should I have need to use it but I like to have other options.

 

Bit more accurately, so long as the last few digits of your decimal degrees are accurate!

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