Google messed with email. Email is one of our oldest electronic media; we all know how it is supposed to work. Changing the default privacy rules of your email inbox and address book without asking you very clearly and explicitly in advance is... well, sabotage. Also: Bait and switch.
Facebook is a sandbox. People kind of understand that. I sign on to Facebook knowing that (a) I don't know for sure what it is; (b) its inventors aren't quite sure what it is, either; (c) we're going to find out by trial and error. Whereas I sign on to GMail because I want a personal email system, which despite all its flashy trappings retains the underlying semantics of email. If I wanted a social network, or another sandbox, I'd have signed up for one. And I'm not sure anyone wants a thing that impersonates a personal email system for a decade and then decides to become something else overnight without warning or clarity.
This is the problem. They did ask for these things, just not clearly and explicitly. However, they did have these things in place, and people did use them. Just not everyone did.
So, what does he apologize for? A mistake that didn't happen or for mistakes that did happen? Granted, the popular opinion wants them to apologize for the perceived slight, but doing so would be admitting to something that in reality, didn't happen as popular opinion would suggest.
Either way, any apology would be bad. In this case, being honest is probably the best thing to do.
Facebook is a sandbox. People kind of understand that. I sign on to Facebook knowing that (a) I don't know for sure what it is; (b) its inventors aren't quite sure what it is, either; (c) we're going to find out by trial and error. Whereas I sign on to GMail because I want a personal email system, which despite all its flashy trappings retains the underlying semantics of email. If I wanted a social network, or another sandbox, I'd have signed up for one. And I'm not sure anyone wants a thing that impersonates a personal email system for a decade and then decides to become something else overnight without warning or clarity.