From the outside, Eric Schmidt basically put them on the current track and he long predates the acquisition. Most likely when the company was in its infancy and growing at high rates relied on cranking out products loved by all, it was easy to do the right thing/humor the founders (assuming they cared at least). At this stage though there is not much utility (as far as increasing ad revenue) in improving products, so its harder to hide what really mattered all along if they want to meet the growth expectations that the market/themselves have set.

I'm sure it had an effect, but they were already reading your email and making targeted ads out of the content before that.