Google's insane hiring and investment into a gazillion non-ads product areas over the last 10 years tells you that they know this as well.

They've been shoveling their ad revenues desperately into a furnace of "everything but ads", throwing ideas against numerous walls to see what sticks, and copying other company's product roadmaps. Almost none of it has worked out. They're still dependent on that ad revenue firehose for 90-ish percent of their profits.

When that firehose slows, the only way to maintain things will be to cut costs. So in a way I'm glad I got out of working there before that era began. "Fun" times there have been slowing for years, but it's going to get serious, I think.

Not as bad as Facebook, though.