MapCode

The mapcode system is a spatial reference system (not to be confused with the Denso mapcode system). A mapcode is a code consisting of two groups of letters and digits, separated by a dot. It represents a location on the surface of the Earth, within the context of a separately specified country or territory. For example, the entrance to the elevator of the Eiffel Tower in Paris is “France 4J.Q2”. As with addresses, it is often unnecessary to explicitly mention the country.

The mapcode algorithm defines how a WGS 84 coordinate (a latitude and longitude) can be converted into a mapcode, and vice versa. Mapcodes are supported on over 50,000,000 car navigation devices world-wide. More and more mapping companies are adopting mapcode as a standard.

The mapcode system was designed specifically as a free, brand-less, international standard for representing any location on the surface of the Earth by a short, easy to recognize and remember “code”, usually consisting of between 4 and 7 letters and digits. The shortness is the key differentiating factor between mapcodes and other location references; more densely populated areas are designated with shorter (4 character) codes.

The brevity of mapcodes was achieved through a combination of several ideas:

The last idea, especially, yield very good results. For example, although every location within the Netherlands can be identified by a 6-letter mapcode, half of the Dutch population can be found in about 40 cities and densely populated areas that together comprise less than 6,000 square kilometers. By reserving 5-letter mapcodes for these areas, half of the population can thus be reached with 5 mapcode letters. Since human dwellings and businesses are usually the more relevant locations in daily human life, this means that the relevant locations in the Netherlands have 5-letter mapcodes more often than 6-letter mapcodes. In fact, a significant number of people lives in the 100 square kilometers of very densely populated city centers of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Eindhoven en Utrecht, which are covered by 4-letter codes. The mapcode system thus defines a population-density-based code division for all (roughly 200) countries on Earth, all (roughly 100) overseas territories, and roughly 240 subdivisions (provinces, states, oblasts etc.). With the exception of Antarctica and the international waters, few locaties on the surface of the Earth require a mapcode longer than 7 letters.

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Wikipedia