[golly_ned]

He's contrasting Google's childishly 'friendly' image with its reality.

It's rhetoric. You're making it about manipulation. Should the world consist of bloodless lists of facts without significance or commentary?

[j1elo]

Oh, not at all. I appreciate the rethoric, although it didn't work with me because I've never experienced Google as childish or even amicable. So the author's excessive predisposition to think of Google as a marvelous friend was a bit jarring for me (and that's why I personally felt the tone a bit on the side of emotional manipulation). But, to each their own. Expressing commentary and emotions is good, I do prefer it to cold facts all the time :-)