Every innovation begins with the identification of a problem. One such issue is the lack of address uniformity. People use and distribute addresses in a variety of ways. There is no standard format for defining them. Typically, a country's postal office specifies the format in which addresses should be written, but the general public may be unaware of this or use it incorrectly.
This issue cannot be ignored, especially by certain businesses. Correcting addresses is particularly crucial for businesses in sectors such as last-mile deliveries, courier services, insurance, banking, and any other business that deals with addresses.
What are google maps- Plus Codes?
Plus Codes function similarly to street addresses for people or places without one. “Plus Codes are based on latitude and longitude and displayed as numbers and letters, rather than addresses with street names and numbers.” -Google Plus creators. People can use a Plus Code to get deliveries, access emergency, and social services, or just to assist others in finding them.
Plus codes are basically addressed for everyone and everywhere. Each place e.g. Gavier lake in Surat, Gujarat is identified by a code. When you search for gavier lake, you get the code 4PGM+8H
And when you search for 4PGM+8H, you get the exact location of Gavier Lake, Surat.
What is the best way to use Plus Codes?
For individuals:
Plus Codes can be used to share any location, including your home, a store, or a meeting spot, even if there are no street names or even streets. Friends, family, and service providers will be able to find your house without using landmarks or asking for directions.
Plus Codes help you save time while traveling to new places by directing you to your exact destination.
For Small and medium-sized businesses:
Give your Plus Code to consumers to help them locate you. If you deliver goods to customers, you may simply locate them using their Plus Codes, even if you don't know their street names or numbers.
Commercial Shipping
Whether it's areas with traditional addressing, areas without street names, rural areas, or informal settlements, get items to the proper place, every time. To ensure that your logistics operations work smoothly and efficiently, use Plus Codes to receive specific pickup and drop-off locations.
Services for Emergencies
With Plus Codes that pinpoint places properly, let responders get assistance to individuals as quickly as feasible. Using an easy-to-use common location code, coordinate rescue efforts with other organizations for quick service.
For Government:
No matter where they live, the government provides services to all inhabitants, including mail and social aid. Ensure that residents receive official notifications and that they have the opportunity to register to vote.
For Logistics/courier services and food delivery services: Plus codes are more precise and accurate because they are unique identifiers of a geographical area. Plus codes are easier to memorize than latitude and longitude coordinates. Customers can provide plus codes in the address field, which delivery employees can utilize to accurately locate customer addresses using Google Maps.
NGO's use Plus Codes: to organize humanitarian and disaster relief efforts in areas where mapping data is insufficient or non-existent. Detailing the locations served can help you keep better records and track your services.
For E-commerce: At the consumer checkout window, plus codes can replace manual address entry, making the checkout process speedier by reducing the number of characters necessary to be entered. These plus codes can then be used by third-party logistics providers to finish the delivery.
For Financial Institutions: Plus codes are very useful for financial organizations in reducing manual address entry errors. Plus codes are an efficient way to store customer location information for financial services that rely on "Know Your Customer" information. While they may not be able to totally replace traditional approaches, they can certainly help to improve the accuracy of data obtained. Plus codes can be used as phantom addresses by financial organizations to derive lat-longs for later use in geographical risk assessments.
How do plus codes help you tackle your problems?
Plus codes are useful for more than just locating a certain location. Because of the benefits, many businesses and individuals can utilize them instead of the old address system. The following are the key issues that plus codes address:
Manual address entry errors: Plus codes solve this problem by allowing you to specify your address using a unique alphanumeric string that is easier to remember and shorter than your actual address.
Changes in street names: Because plus codes are independent of street or road names, any change in pin codes or street names has no bearing on their accuracy.
Any site without an address can be identified: according to the World Bank, half of the world's urban population lives on a nameless street. Plus codes offer such areas a new identity.
You've learned everything there is to know about Plus Codes. But how would you put them into action? Let's get started.
Plus codes are intended for offline use, such as on customer bills, booklets, and other printed materials. However, how about incorporating them into your website or mobile application?
In their most recent product release, Google Maps Platform has merged plus codes with services like Address Autocomplete and Geocoding (the process of converting address to lat-long and vice-versa)
Customers can now look for and enter their location's plus codes directly from your app. Anywhere with an address bar can be connected with the Place Autocomplete service and plus codes, whether it's an e-commerce website, a meal delivery service, or a customer data form on an insurance website.
Plus codes are designed to eliminate address ambiguity and standardize the way addresses are expressed and maintained. As we explained, this has numerous benefits not only for corporations but also for people.
Every region, building, or venue is given an address/variable by Plus Codes. It is not, however, a perfect classifier between houses, buildings, and flat numbers. The plus code would be the same for different addresses in the same building or different houses in the same row house.
For example, if we search for SNS Platina, Surat, we obtain the following results:
The code 4QXG+J9, on the other hand, does not distinguish which SNS Platina building has utilized it. As a result, plus codes make spotting and satellite viewing of areas and buildings simple, sharp, and convenient. They cannot, however, substitute for the actual address provided by persons or businesses.
The blog is compiled and written by Ms. Vidhi Thakar who is a content contributor on our website. If you have any questions or feedback, kindly please write back to us.