This could be an explanation, but the old rule says "Never ascribe to malice what you could attribute to incompetence or ignorance." Based on what I have heard

This could be an explanation, but the old rule says "Never ascribe to malice what you could attribute to incompetence or ignorance." Based on what I have heard from people who work at Google (and read on the personal blogs of Googlers & Xooglers), a perhaps equally plausible explanation is that Google management would be unable to pull something like that off because groups are too chaotic/independent, and what is described by the OP would require coordinated action, but there isn't an overall "strategy" (which is even true for companies much more organized than Google, sadly).