
An algorithm that can give an instant solution to 7B people - roberdam
https://medium.com/@roberdam/an-algorithm-that-can-give-an-instant-solution-to-7-billion-people-60bf628205a2
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adyus
I think it's been mentioned in the original XAddress post, but the problem is
not necessarily mapping a lat/long pair to a human-memorable address.

The way current addresses have worked (mostly) is by associating with
landmarks. Large street names are known by lots of locals. Smaller streets are
associated with larger streets by proximity (second left on Large Street).
Numbers help place an address at the beginning, middle or end of a street, on
the left or right.

Grid cities have an added advantage of encoding approximate location in the
street name directly.

XAddress and What3Words solve a problem for the 4bn without street addresses,
but they do not help locate things or navigate to them without being online.

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roberdam
Just a real life example, I check something im interested on a classified ad
and want to go see it, as you say the seller tell me how to get there,
referencing other streets and local businesses (streets here are named after
generals or war heroes, not grid style). When I try to find the address on
Google Maps this is what it shows. [https://cdn-
images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*wK-gIc8QQYHwEz5-Ba...](https://cdn-
images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*wK-gIc8QQYHwEz5-BaHPZA.jpeg) And this is a city
just 10 miles from the country capital.

"3645 OUR DUDE - Central,Paraguay" would have been useful.

Agree with you but dont have to be a "this or that" choice.

~~~
adyus
Well, if one has to input a lat/long pair to get "3645 OUR DUDE -
Central,Paraguay", the same effort[1] can lead to better data in Google Maps
or better, OpenStreetMaps

[1] [http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/29079/my-house-
addres...](http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/29079/my-house-address-isnt-
listed-on-google-maps)

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rm_-rf_slash
While the algorithm is indeed simple, it is not the kind of thing an average
person would remember or have time for. Therefore, it makes us just as
dependent on technology as before. After all, if you want to find out where a
given address is, you google it (although every once in a while the results
are inaccurate or mixed up with a similar address).

So Xaddress does solve a problem. Not the biggest leap forward, but a solid
step nonetheless. I'm interested to see what applications can come out of this
(that couldn't be done before).

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jakobegger
Link to the previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12260958](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12260958)

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_Codemonkeyism
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