I can’t speak to this particular study, but as a former Google employee, I would take any of the social “research” done at Google with a massive grain of salt. Very little is peer reviewed (or even externally available) and the stuff I looked at internally is not even remotely rigorous.

Additionally, the results that make it to the media get way exaggerated compared to the actual underlying study. This is compounded by the fact that Google picks and chooses what it publicizes, so what you’re seeing has a huge PR/political filter.