This article names, what I have had as a feeling for a long time: "Oh it created by Google … ah this will suck." Take whatever you want. GMail, YouTube, Google Search, Google's online office products (they are sooo soo basic, so that even the most basic used can handle it, with no way to unlock great functionality), Google Hangout, you name it. It all sucks. You are the product, a used and not a user.

Mostly the reason is probably, that this kind of software is only written with the most basic and common used in mind, not with the one, who wants to customize everything to their own personalized needs or a user, who does not require big corp to tell them "what they want". Google targets another group of people.

So I think the wording "crapware" pretty much covers it.

Of course ethical questions like the ones raised in the article … I guess they don't usually even enter the equation at Google.