A few years ago, this would have been interesting. But now it just looks foolish. It looks like a company that’s so embarrassed about how late they are to the dance that they snuck in the backdoor and refuse to talk to anyone let alone dance with anyone. 

Google made a big bet on background location with Latitude, but they were far too early. By the time they realized this and pivoted towards the check-in, it was too late. Now things are finally starting to shift towards background location and Google is going the wrong way.