Google Map's New 10-Letter Universal Address Will Let You Easily Find Any Location In The World

At a press event in New Delhi today, Google had a new surprise for India. As part of its efforts to streamline Google Maps for the Indian audience, the company has now launched something called ¡®Plus Codes¡¯, which it promises to make sharing your address easier than ever.

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Plus Codes are basically the company¡¯s interpretation of a mailing address for the modern age. After all, if we can have a phone number and IP address, why are physical addresses so long and cumbersome? Instead, Plus Codes transforms your address into a simple 10-digit (sometimes 11) alphanumeric code, making remembering and sharing it an absolute breeze.

Basically, Google has divided the entire world into tiny quadrants at the smallest level, with 20x20 of these quadrants making up a larger one. That way, an alphanumeric code can give you an exact location marker right down to within a few metres.

Take the code 7JFJ2R3H+G65. That¡¯s the Plus Code for the Mumbai branch of Indiatimes, though it¡¯ll be listed locally as just 2R3H+G65. Here, the first four characters are the area code, with everything after being the local code. The entirety of India is actually contained within three of the largest layer of quadrants, 8J 7J, and 7M. Zooming into 7J, and Central Mumbai is squarely in the 7JFJ quadrant, holding everything from Dahanu in the North to King Edward Memorial Hospital in the south, and from the eastern limits of Thane to the waters around the city. Go in closer, and 7JFJ2R has some of Lower Parel, most of Dadar, and a piece of the Bandra Reclamation area. In some more, and the Times Tower falls squarely in 7JFJ2R3H+. As for the G65 at the end, G6 is part of the wing our office is in, and that makes G65 right about where I set in the office.

Yeah, it¡¯s that accurate.

The best part, is that you can generate this Plus Code address from within the Google Maps app and easily shared via a text. Or, you can use this handy map to find your Plus Code, and explore the quadrants around you. Copying pasting one of these codes even just directly into Google search will give you the location result in Maps.

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You don¡¯t need to sign up or register; every piece of Earth already has a code assigned to it, even the middle of the ocean (should you need a parcel delivered there). It¡¯s also free to use, for both developers and users.

In an ideal scenario, e-commerce portals like Flipkart and Amazon, and even food delivery services like Swiggy can adopt Plus Codes as an optional way to provide your address for deliveries. Unless of course you enjoy wasting 15 minutes of your day trying to figure out which gate your delivery executive is waiting at and why he isn¡¯t coming inside.