What3Words

[Zeph]

Not sure if this is a good thing or not. I've often thought that the internet was the cause of the downfall of the working landscape photographer, among other tech inventions, what was once "trade secrets" are now readily available to anyone. Perfect locations can now literally be pin-pointed down to 3 square meters and easily shared, sure L&L have been available for many years long before the internet, but this app will integrate this even more.
I am enticed by this stuff, but it comes with a cost.

 

[Ben Egbert]

It makes it possible for guys like me to take decent images, and some to take better stuff and a few to go to limits unknown.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Zeph, what app are you referring too? Or did I misunderstand what you said?

I agree that the internet has been both a blessing and a curse.

 

[Zeph]

Hey Zeph, what app are you referring too? Or did I misunderstand what you said?

I agree that the internet has been both a blessing and a curse.

Browser Link

 

[JimFox]

I didn't click on it yet, so what3words is a real website? I never heard of it before, maybe my heads been stuck behind the camera too much?

But then again, when I was in Joshua Tree a few weeks ago, some of the people would seriously look at me like I was the biggest loser in the world because when they asked me what my Instagram account was I told them I didn't have one. I have never had so many people look at me like I was the stupidest person alive since I didn't use Instagram. It was a really odd feeling. Funny how I guess I was living in a vacuum and had no idea the degree I have been hurting myself and my photography by not being on Instagram. It was elitism that I had not felt since 500pix first came out.

 

[AlanLichty]

I did follow the link to see what the app really was. It might be useful for businesses trying to determine the demographics of their customers but any GPS app can handle actual longitude/latitude with equivalent accuracy. Maybe the appeal is for someone who doesn't understand spherical coordinate systems.

As for social media I summarily refuse to participate in faceplant/google/instagram. I have never had/never will do instagram, I have deleted my faceplant account (takes quite a few steps BTW), removed any and all references to facebook from my phone/computer. I have set up my browsers so I am never logged into Google unless I am using Chrome and I only use that for maps. I quit Chrome any time I am not actively using it since the browser continues to relay info to Google if it is still active.

I am a far cry from a luddite - I spent 37 years doing IT including building web applications to monitor network hardware. I simply do not accept the business model of the social media platforms and how they deal with both my data as well as any media I might post.
</soapbox>

 

[Zeph]

I did follow the link to see what the app really was. It might be useful for businesses trying to determine the demographics of their customers but any GPS app can handle actual longitude/latitude with equivalent accuracy. Maybe the appeal is for someone who doesn't understand spherical coordinate systems.

As for social media I summarily refuse to participate in faceplant/google/instagram. I have never had/never will do instagram, I have deleted my faceplant account (takes quite a few steps BTW), removed any and all references to facebook from my phone/computer. I have set up my browsers so I am never logged into Google unless I am using Chrome and I only use that for maps. I quit Chrome any time I am not actively using it since the browser continues to relay info to Google if it is still active.

I am a far cry from a luddite - I spent 37 years doing IT including building web applications to monitor network hardware. I simply do not accept the business model of the social media platforms and how they deal with both my data as well as any media I might post.
</soapbox>

Alan - I grew up believing that privacy was the corner stone of democracy and that anonymity was a protected right but as social media began to flourish I soon leaned that I was becoming the product, why were all these user productivity apps free? We all have children or younger friends who don't think twice about offering up their DNA and all.
I'm not naive and I do enjoy my iPhone and all but I know that pretty much everything I do can be monitored. Like you, no FB/Twit/Instagram or the evil empire Google in my life, FW this is about as social as I get. In the start up years with my business I was the system admin and I continue to be fascinated with tech.
The app described above basically uses words instead of numbers for the front end, just like web ULR's are really numbers but in order for people to have association, words are used.

 

[JimFox]

Okay, so I finally googled it and went onto their website on my PC.

I have to say my first impressions are that it's totally non-sensical. It appears that these 3 meter areas that are defined by just 3 random words. After looking at a half dozen locations, the words make no sense at all. I am not impressed. In the city, just use your address or the address of what you are looking at. How hard could that be?

Again, I say this appears to be just dumb and nothing I would use.