ReadWriteWeb

If this week's Where 2.0 conference is proof of anything, it's that developers are excited about creating location aware mobile apps. One of the biggest barriers to creating a place-aware app, however, is getting the ball rolling - you need place data.

Place and location, though hand-in-hand, are two different things and SimpleGeo, a geolocation data storage and platform service, announced this week that it has put data for more than 20 million places into the public domain to make it easier than ever for developers to create location-aware applications.

Think about your average, smartphone-enabled visit to a new restaurant: You sit down, take a gander at the menu and quickly pull out your phone to look up the latest Foursquare tips and Yelp reviews. Some are novels of glowing hyperbole while others lament the irritable waitress and denounce the spot as the diner on the seventh level of hell. Either way, you often find yourself overwhelmed and more confused than when you started out.

Loopt, the mobile location tracking app and social network, announced today a new feature called Loopt Qs, "a fun, really social way to get bite-sized insider info and share your own opinions about a local place."

Whenever people ask what I'm excited about in technology these days, I sheepishly answer "mobile location". Somehow it feels like it isn't edgy enough or it doesn't have the multiple word power of something like "mobile social photo sharing," but it sure feels like the future to me.

Next week, I won't be alone as the Where 2.0 conference - in its 7th year - brings the best and brightest in location technologies to San Francisco. I got a chance to speak with Brady Forrest, co-chair for the conference, about what we could expect this year.