A location service and method provides a location aware computing device
that is extensible by allowing different types of location awareness
providers operate with the service. The method includes receiving a
request for a location context, acquiring data associated with a current
location from one or more location detection devices, reconciling the
acquired data for any inconsistencies concerning the current location by
applying either or both of a hierarchical and a metric process, and
generating a location object accessible to applications. The service
includes a location management component configured to route location
data, a fuser engine configured to receive one or more location reports
generated from the location data, reconcile conflicts between the
location reports and generate a location object, and one or more location
application programming interfaces (APIs) coupled to the location
management component to transmit the location object from the fuser
engine to an application.