What's the deal with Google Maps services running all the time?

[burrrton]

Epic 4G Touch (GB 2.3.6.) I've rooted it and dumped all the bloat like Social Hub, Media Hub and such.

Yesterday, in "Running Services" I had the basics plus Email (I assume that's needed for grabbing SMS?), Swype, and such.

After 7 hrs of light/average use (4G on and off a few times, dloaded an app, BT on and off a few times, 15 mins of gaming, etc), my battery was at 87%. That was roughly my pattern for the last few days- great battery life for this device, I think.

Then yesterday afternoon, I played with Google Maps, turning GPS on and off, opening and closing the "Traffic" widget (do people actually use that??), etc, then shutting it all down, turning off location, etc.

I then see Google Maps has three processes running:

"NetworkInitiatedService"
"NetworkLocationService"
"FriendsAppWidgetUpdate"

that can't be shut down (when you do, they pop back up a moment later). I left it alone, though, figuring it was filling its cache or whatever- I don't get too worked up about apps doing their thing if they can do it then shut down.

So today, after charging it last night, those processes are still running and my battery is now at 88% after three hours. Google Maps seems to be killing my battery for no apparent benefit- I have no widget running that uses it, either (I have the Accuweather widget running, but it's not set to use current location).

I guess my questions are:

Is this normal- does everyone else see this behavior? Is there any way to shut Maps down that I can't find?

TIA.

[edit]

GPS has been off the whole time (except as noted above), I'm not signed in to Latitude (never have been), and Settings --> Location and Security --> Use wireless networks and use GPS satellites are both unchecked.

 

[joe8617]

Re: What's the deal with Google Maps services running all the tim

Good questions.

 

[burrrton]

Re: What's the deal with Google Maps services running all the tim

Update:

I went in to:

Settings --> Applications --> Manage Applications

And hit "Clear Data" on the Maps app and it stopped all the services running.

Happy, but I didn't expect that. In fact, I might have expected the opposite.

Why would clearing its data stop it from running??

Also, it only shuts them down when you "Clear Data" from the system settings, not from Titanium Backup.

 

[adammcgovern]

Re: What's the deal with Google Maps services running all the tim

I've noticed that with maps as well. I've also see that "footprints" is also very active. When I check into the running services there are so many maps related processes all the time. I did recently tweek my gps settings but I haven't checked to see how much of a difference it made. I could care less about latitude and footprints but it seems like they are part of the deal.