For example, pointing out that using text ads over graphical ones improved the speed and was an important aspect for users is noteworthy, as well as Brin and Page's insistence that focusing on the technology would bring users and, in turn, ad revenue is as well. This article was written just a couple of years after a major crash of tech stocks that had absolutely no way to make a buck, so some skepticism was in order, I believe. In fact the vast majority of .com's were not profitable so it's not as if a company that at the time was trailing Yahoo! and Overture and barely profitable was inevitably going to become the Google we know today.
It's mostly the tone of articles - a sense that this internet thing isn't quite there yet and there are consumer expectations that internet simply can't account for (which in the case of the article cited, we know is false because of things like pinterest etc).
The stuff I'm thinking about now is when articles talk about Snapchat, memes, gifs etc, the angle is coming from a very dismissive place.
Mostly talking about mainstream media though.