That's an interesting way to look at it.

I would argue that Google+ didn't work out because Google was trying to play catch-up in a field that it just lacked knowledge in (social networks).

Whereas with machine learning, they're not playing catch-up, everyone else is. Of all the other tech titans out there, they're the ones really leading the pack.

That remark aside though, I agree with you. An attempt to go hard on machine learning and apply it everywhere will probably work out pretty badly. As fascinating as ML is, I just haven't bothered to learn it yet because I haven't the slightest idea what new and novel problem I'd solve with it that doesn't have a better solution through a more straight-forward approach.