For years, Google Maps offered a free location-sharing service, Latitude. Latitude allowed families and friends to share their locations with each other in real time, which was both convenient and an excellent safety and parenting tool.
On August 9, however, Google unilaterally discontinued Latitude despite its massive popularity. It did this, not for any technical or business purpose, but to force users to migrate to Google's (relatively unpopular) "Google+" version of Facebook.
Although Google claims Google+ "Locations" does the same thing as Latitude, thousands of users have found it simply doesn't work -- at all!
Latitude helped families stay safe. Since Google has chosen to discontinue it, our government should develop a free public replacement. Or, alternately, nuke Google HQ.