Inverse by Mike Brown 8/16/2020
SpaceX Starlink's website tweak may help it reach people that need it most
SpaceX, the space-faring firm founded by Elon Musk, is making it easier to get rural and underserved communities online. A change to one of the company's websites could make the process simpler.
It could be a big win for rural and underserved communities — people who can't rely on ground-based connections. But hopeful users tell Inverse that, until recently, signing up on the website to receive more information has proven difficult. Critically, evidence suggests issues might be solved if a limited beta test proves successful.
However, a new tweak to the website could help solve these issues. The form now suggests that users can input a "Plus Code" if their address is not listed or they do not have an address. Logs from the Wayback Machine suggest the tweak was made at the start of August.
A Plus Code is a Google-provided string of characters that correspond to latitude and longitude. Users can now provide a Plus Code in forms like these to point Google Maps to a specific marker on a map.
More:
https://www.inverse.com/innovation/spacex-starlinks-website-update
