We cornered SimpleGeo founder Matt Galligan yesterday and talked to him about SimpleGeo&'s newest hire, Mike&'s infamousa4s‚ &''What Is It You Do The Need Fora4s‚ Simplicity&'' post (which focused on the fact that it&'s difficult to pinpoint what SimpleGeo actually does) and the difference between a location-based service vs. a location-aware service.

At the center of the geo-locational explosion, SimpleGeoa4s‚ provides infrastructure tools (likea4s‚ a Software Developer Kit) to developers who want to add location services to their apps. Potential clients run the gamut from a huge corporation that wants to integrate &''some fancy check-in thing&'' to homegrown apps that want their app to do something simple like providing data on the weather.

Location is increasingly becoming a layer as opposed to a core feature in web services, much like social has become a layer with the conceptual shift from Friendster to Facebook. Galligan holds that eventually most apps will have to integrate some kind of location element, &''It&'s no longer the area of location based services, it&'s the era of location aware services.

Galligan also underplayed thea4s‚ entrance of social incumbents like Facebook into the location space, &''It&'s only matter of time before we stop saying &8216'Omg they just added location now they&'re going to own this&' because the reality is that eveyone is going to use location in this way.&''