The "Open Location Code" is often mentioned on Hacker News, but is sadly neither open, nor a location code.
To pick one example, if you go to 0°06'40.6"S 28°56'27.0"E
(-0.111271, 28.940829) in Google Maps, it'll give the Open Location Code "VWQR+F8W Maipi, Democratic Republic of the Congo", or some variation thereof, depending on your local language.
The most significant bytes, "Maipi, Democratic Republic of the Congo", are obviously not a location code, but a place name, and thus cannot be decoded at all.
Moreover, if you go to OpenStreetMap and look up "Maipi", it returns three places in Indonesia, and none in DR Congo. So even using a location service plus the algorithm could land you on the wrong continent.
The "Open Location Code" is essentially only usable as a search key for Google Maps. "Go look it up on Google" isn't a location code, it's advertising.
To pick one example, if you go to 0°06'40.6"S 28°56'27.0"E (-0.111271, 28.940829) in Google Maps, it'll give the Open Location Code "VWQR+F8W Maipi, Democratic Republic of the Congo", or some variation thereof, depending on your local language.
The most significant bytes, "Maipi, Democratic Republic of the Congo", are obviously not a location code, but a place name, and thus cannot be decoded at all.
Moreover, if you go to OpenStreetMap and look up "Maipi", it returns three places in Indonesia, and none in DR Congo. So even using a location service plus the algorithm could land you on the wrong continent.
The "Open Location Code" is essentially only usable as a search key for Google Maps. "Go look it up on Google" isn't a location code, it's advertising.