I don't think you can trust any of the vocal Googlers who come out on these threads. Nor do I think they should be considered representative of Google. There are a lot of good people at Google-- probably most of them-- but they aren't especially active on Google-centric threads. What you get on these are people who see any acknowledgment of Google's imperfections as a personal attack on them.

There's a lot of good, and there's some bad, to Google. Whenever I post honestly about the place, there are 3 or 4 people who consistently come out for a fight. I don't mind that they exist and do what they do, because it's free entertainment for me, but regarding "people you can trust"... anyone who trusts them over me is too stupid to live. Trust me or trust none of us.

I am not claiming to be unbiased, and my experience at Google is rather limited. (I was there in what I've been told were the worst 6 months for the company's culture.) However, I learned an incredible amount in that time (more than most people learn in 10 years) about what happens to make good companies go bad.