[bordercases]

Considering that Google's primary revenue is through advertising, and digital advertising's two main problems are (a) identity and (b) context, yes, it is still very much about linking, even if they need to prop up smaller projects or loss-leaders to collect the appropriate data (the secondary value proposition acts as a stepping stone to the first).

[harikb]

the number of fitbit owners <<< number of google identities (for search traffic)

and

data and location from fitbit owners < what they can already get from the andriod phone.

I get the point you are making, I am not denying there is value, but it is a stretch that it is all about data.

In fact, I have heard about companies who had ties with Fitbit to sell location data to third parties. I would much rather have Google be that arbitrator.

I don't work for Google or Fitbit.