Open Location Code

The Open Location Code (OLC) is a geocode based on a system of grids for identifying any place on the Earth. Google's Zürich engineering office developed the system and published it in October 2014. Geocodes in the OLC system are referred to as Plus Codes. Open Location Code is a way of encoding location into a form that is easier to use than coordinates in latitude and longitude. Plus Codes are especially useful where there is no formal system to identify specific places. Plus Codes are differently expressed latitude and longitude coordinates, so they can be assigned to any location. They are similar in length to a telephone number (e.g., 849VCWC8+R9) but can often be shortened to four or six digits when combined with a locality (e.g., CWC8+R9, Mountain View, California). Locations close to each other have similar codes. They can be encoded or decoded offline. The character set avoids similar-looking characters to reduce confusion and errors and avoids vowels to make it unlikely that a code spells existing words. Plus Codes are not case-sensitive and can therefore be easily exchanged over the phone. Since August 2015, Google Maps has supported Plus Codes in its search engine. The shortened Plus Code is displayed for a location, may be copied, clicked, or transcribed, and can be entered into the address box (followed by the town or city name if not local and using shortened code) to display the location on the map. The algorithm is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 and is available on GitHub.