Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Maps and search apps now support Open Location Codes (OLCs). Now it becomes simpler to locate specific locations that don’t possess exact street addresses. In April this year, the search giant announced OLCs that are also called plus codes. The latter are short location pin pointers obtained from longitude as well as latitude coordinates that can be decoded or encoded offline.
You can get plus codes for any place if it lacks an official street address such as a bungalow on an unmarked street at plus.codes and send it to others so they can locate you with minimum effort. If your friends or acquaintances are close by, you just require to dispatch the last four characters of the code. That is more than enough to help them locate you.
Harnessing Plus Codes will profit users in areas lacking street/road names or numbers of Houses. Plus Codes will empower them to outline precisely a place that is currently searchable in Google Search or Maps.
According to Google, plus codes will be useful for folk and enterprises in several regions of the world with dense population and insufficient data address and accuracy systems. Also, the codes can prove invaluable for disaster response entities handling rescue operations. The new feature applies to both Google Maps and search apps.
These short codes comprise of six or seven letters and numbers. The codes identify an area rather than a point and for more preciseness you can put more digits. The system can be decoded or encoded offline, so there is no issue even if you are in parts that have poor internet service or lack internet connection altogether.
Plus codes go a long way in ensuring the world is simpler to navigate. It bears a resemblance to a system designed by startup What3Words that leverages combinations of frequently utilized English words to find addresses. However, the advantage of Google’s functionality is that it is present in the world’s leading maps and search apps.
The feature is functioning pretty well now. So on the next occasion you are attending an event or gamboling on the beach just use Plus Codes for navigating your pals to your precise location.
Sources: engadget, ausdroid, thenextweb
