Are the most trivial of topics publishable if they say something negative about a big tech company? I think NYT would not have gone with this if say, John Deere employees were feeding cats outside their headquarters.
And you might note that this is in the section specifically devoted to covering the technology industry. Do you also object to the Times having that and not an agriculture section?
I'd guess that he heard about this through one of his many Silicon Valley sources. I'd further guess that he pitched the story to his editor, who then ran it their section, which it is their job to fill. Rather than the Nature or Ecology sections, neither of which appears to be an actual NY Times section: http://spiderbites.nytimes.com/sections/00000.html
I think this is the exact point the OP is talking about: Google seems big because it's bigger by profits. Also, not unrelated, some people here and elsewhere feel more emotional about Google. So take some otherwise small-town public-interest story and push it for views.
Do you think the web is some magical place outside of the environment? Google has more servers running than any other company in the world consuming significant amounts of energy.