This article tries to characterize Google's use of open source. The general conclusion is that Google only uses open source to further its own interests. There's no altruism. It's predictable really. I mean what else would I expect a corporation to do?

But, in Google's case, this open source behavior is noteworthy because Google likes to cultivate the public image of a "good actor" (and certainly a better actor than other corporations), and because Google generates a colossal revenue stream, dwarfing almost every other corporation's. And this is why their open source strategies are problematic. If we could fully remove the veil we would quite possibly see that Google is not good at all. We might just see another greedy, stingy corporation.