[xiaoma]

I think it really started when Google made its ill-spirited push to make everyone use Plus[1]. Before that point, Google was mostly beloved and most users were truly grateful for Google's free products. After that push, many lost YouTube accounts (including me), people who didn't even want to use Plus for chats were pushed to that page as the popular Google Talk app was killed (and then later forcibly moved from plus.google.* to hangouts.google.*).

In a fairly short period of time, people started seeing the same kind of "We're in charge and you're going to use _____ and like it!" attitude that Microsoft was once famous for. People wanted Plus about as much as they wanted Vista, but it got shoved on them anyway.

In more recent years—with AMP pages (and authors on Plus) getting an edge in search, google.com badgering users to install Chrome, a successful embrace->extend->extinguish strategy being executed against open source Android, etc—moves like this one don't look so innocent as they would have coming from the smaller, goofier and cheerier Google of 2005.

1: http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-page-just-tied-employee...