Absolutely. I have long mentioned that Google got lucky that the initial search was a textbox on a white screen and nothing else.
If they had tried to do a portal or something like Yahoo! they would have failed miserably.
Till today, I haven't seen a good design from Google for anything complicated. Just look at what a mess Gmail is for instance.
Great engineers, horrible product and design folks.
All search engines look like Google search
All calendar apps look like Google calendar.
All maps app look like Google maps.
All email clients look like GMail
I'm not saying Google invented any or all of these but it sounds like you don't like it the colors or font but that's different from your larger point.
Show me an instance where Google's UI is radically different from industry norms and then you'll have a point.
Some of this shit is complex and complex things look complex.
Gmail is the first email client that arranges conversations like that