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One problem I see is that one particular address may end up with several 3-word addresses. Since physical distance doesn't affect the similarity of the combinat

One problem I see is that one particular address may end up with several 3-word addresses. Since physical distance doesn't affect the similarity of the combinations, how is one to determine the 'correct' combination for a particular location? This seems to compound the inherent problem of all 3-word combinations sharing the same namespace - I have no idea if two addresses are actually the same building, or on opposite sides of the planet.

maxerickson 10y ago
For most things the adjacent addresses would be equivalent. It doesn't matter which part of the house a package is delivered to. In many cases someone picking an address won't really be able to get within 3 meters anyway. I guess people looking at several addresses won't be looking at the words, they will have to have a resolver and look at them that way.
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  But it might matter if you're delivering five packages, and your system lists five addresses, even though they're all going to the same building.
  - maxerickson 10y ago
    I mention needing to resolve multiple addresses to consider them together. What further problems would there be?
  - 21 10y ago
    Consider that as the article says, they don't currently have any kind of coherent address system at all. It's a vast improvement of the status quo. Sure, this system doesn't make that much sense in a place like London or SF.
  - ygjb 10y ago
    This remains a solved problem. The location phrase specifies the coarse location. Additional addressing information is used to introduce granularity. Look at how addresses are conventionally written already, and in a good chunk of the world, the addresses are written top to bottom, most specific to least specific. The largest remaining problem is that the location mapping depends on a proprietary database, but this is a common problem (in Canada the database of postal codes is also proprietary).
    - bhandziuk 10y ago
      that's mostly true, except US/Canada we put the zip/postal code at the end which is more specific than the city/state/province. But your gist remains true.
      - ygjb 10y ago
        True, but do note that postal codes and ZIP codes are a recent adoption, only deployed in US/UK/Canada since the 1960s The history of post addresses is quite interesting in it's own right :)
  - Niksko 10y ago
    Presumably this is handled by the software that is being licensed. Because if all the software does is do a conversion from words to gps coords, they're being taken for a ride.

maxerickson 10y ago

For most things the adjacent addresses would be equivalent. It doesn't matter which part of the house a package is delivered to. In many cases someone picking an address won't really be able to get within 3 meters anyway. I guess people looking at several addresses won't be looking at the words, they will have to have a resolver and look at them that way.

pavel_lishin 10y ago
But it might matter if you're delivering five packages, and your system lists five addresses, even though they're all going to the same building.
- maxerickson 10y ago
  I mention needing to resolve multiple addresses to consider them together. What further problems would there be?
- 21 10y ago
  Consider that as the article says, they don't currently have any kind of coherent address system at all. It's a vast improvement of the status quo. Sure, this system doesn't make that much sense in a place like London or SF.
- ygjb 10y ago
  This remains a solved problem. The location phrase specifies the coarse location. Additional addressing information is used to introduce granularity. Look at how addresses are conventionally written already, and in a good chunk of the world, the addresses are written top to bottom, most specific to least specific. The largest remaining problem is that the location mapping depends on a proprietary database, but this is a common problem (in Canada the database of postal codes is also proprietary).
  - bhandziuk 10y ago
    that's mostly true, except US/Canada we put the zip/postal code at the end which is more specific than the city/state/province. But your gist remains true.
    - ygjb 10y ago
      True, but do note that postal codes and ZIP codes are a recent adoption, only deployed in US/UK/Canada since the 1960s The history of post addresses is quite interesting in it's own right :)
- Niksko 10y ago
  Presumably this is handled by the software that is being licensed. Because if all the software does is do a conversion from words to gps coords, they're being taken for a ride.