Personally I think you are completely wrong. Google is in the business of targeted ads. For that they need infos about the user. Everything else is just a trap to get you to tell them a bit about yourself. Helping you in your searches, is as important as knowing what and who you email.

Facebook, who is also entering the same market, is giving them food for thought exactly because of that. Facebook offers almost no search, but they get your infos from other means. From Google's perspective the end result is similar.