Google announces Plus Codes in Google maps
Google Plus Codes can be used to uniquely identify any location, from a rural home out in the veld to a spaza shop on a nameless street.
While most people take having a fixed, physical address for granted, two billion people across the globe either don’t have an address or have an address that is hard to locate.
This makes it difficult for people to find them, particularly in an emergency.
With this in mind, Google announced they are going to roll out simple digital addressing to Android users by adding Plus Codes in the Google maps on 29 May.
Plus Codes are simple, easy to use digital addresses derived from latitude and longitude coordinates.
They can be used to uniquely identify any location, from a rural home out in the veld to a spaza shop on a nameless street.
To share your location, simply tap the blue dot in Google Maps that represents your location, and get a Plus Code, which you can share the same way you would a phone number.
A Plus Code is a simple alphanumeric code which can be combined with a locality (for example 7656+5G, Pretoria, South Africa).
They look like a regular address, but with a shortcode where a street name or number would be. Beyond using the blue dot, you can also find the Plus Code for a location by tapping and holding the map to drop a pin at a location you want a Plus Code for.
Plus Codes are searchable on Google maps and even Google search, meaning everywhere on the planet can now be uniquely identified.
These digital addresses are free to use, available offline and can be printed on paper, posters and signs. The technology to generate Plus Codes is also an open-source, which means anyone can see how it works and develop their own applications for any use case.
Digital addressing through Plus Codes means that you can search everywhere now with an easily identifiable location, saving time and getting resources there when it really matters.
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