It's a suboptimal minimum, aka a "false minimum" or "rut". Search has stagnated, gone backwards even, it has slid down to the lowest common denominator. Googles focus on apps development flails in the wind because of the indirect feedback caused by the app users being the product instead of the customer.
IMO Google is crimping it own development by getting bogged down in the zero sum data-slurping-advertising game. There is so much more that Google, with all it's talent, should be capable of. To the extent that user privacy becomes law, I think that potential will become apparent.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
