When you provide even a little evidence that this is their plan, this may be taken seriously. As it stands, they are still a huge champion of open standards (hardly a "phase"), and have raised the price on two of their more expensive services (app engine and maps) - both of which only affect developers, not end users.
As it stands, your fears are FUD and nothing more.
As long as it doesn't encroach on their business. For example, given the enormous popularity and similarity of feature set among web ads, why hasn't there been a successful ad campaign standard that would make transfer and interchange of ad campaigns seemless?
This is a space that is in dire need of an open standard and Google is the company in the best position to make it so. This is something I've seen multiple companies struggle with -- it's a real problem. But of course, this is Google's bread and butter. When it comes to being open about things they make no money from, that's one thing. When you instill those same "values" against your bottomline then I think you're being serious.