Satnav query,

Use three little words.

The "GPS Status" app will give you latitude/longitude format

The "OS Locate" app will give you national grid easting/northing format

Well F*ck You. There you go. How does that actually do what I want.

I don't seem to have either.

My satnav works from a street address, assuming you have one. I would have to dig out the instruction manual to use any other method.

He meant 'What Three Words', but I suspect you knew that and were doing the usual kicking out thing at modern tech.

Find your location on the map at

You don't say why.

Take a photo of your abode on a device that embeds the GPS data in the file and email it as an attachment. Then he can feed it into Google Maps (or the Apple equivalent); he can then see it on the map and ask the app for directions.

Indeed. W3W provides a very good universal way of specifying a location to the nearest 3 metres in any direction. If you give the relevant 3 words to your visitor, they will be able to see it on a map. Also, many satnav apps have to ability to navigate to a W3W location.

You must work for them as you are pushing it so hard.

The chances you can give someone 3 words that work is slim. Stupidly there are homonyms and plurals that really bugger up the location ever so easily. Lots of people have tried to use it over less that perfect audio links and have spent ages spelling the words in an attempt to convey the location. Would have been quicker to give the lat&long numerically. Some professionals (mountain rescue etc.) wont use it now due to errors and difficulty in use.

It has always worked well for me. I can send where I am, and use any satnav app to a W3W location.

While some 'professionals' won't use it, perhaps they are Luddites like TNP or can electronically give and receive their location by traditional coordinates.

And I am not affiliated to W3W.

FSVO 'very good'. The words include plurals and homophones. There is a lot of scope for confusion.

For example (and I don't have the data right here) there is one very confusing 'near miss', word wise, that places locations on the Thames, but sufficiently far apart to be dangerous in an emergency.

A combination of a vague postcode to confirm the exact location should be pretty fool-proof.

I used it the other day to pick up the OH from work.

But I could also have found the place with very simple directions on the back of a beer mat.

Probably 3 directions from an A1 road junction and I would have found it.

But that's not how it's marketed. And the postcode bit is useless on a mountain if two sets of words place, say, 3 miles apart.

In what way?

No idea about Tomtom, but:

In a desktop browser it shows you the lat/long coordinates, on mobile it only does that if the location doesn't have an address. But either way the Google link will take them there.

I think if you let your browser share location information with Google it can also detect where you are.

No doubt something similar works in the Google Maps app if that is installed.

Theo

Send your address. Although your postcode may be large, all you need is to add your house number to define your location.

Just that it uses similar sounding words and both singular and plural of the same word, making it very easy for someone to be told the location, mishear it and end up at entirely the wrong place.

It will normally have an option somewhere for entering latitude and longitude, OS co-ordinates and a few more. I have had to do that a few times in the past, when visiting Ireland, as their mapping has not been of the same standard as UK mapping.

On one occasion, inputting "Main Street, Castlebar" kept sending us to a small village 10 miles away - with the result that we missed most of the funeral of my wife's uncle, finding the church just as everyone came out to go to the cemetery.