To me, that incident was one of the first times I really started thinking "Google really have gone evil". I know, I know... it's "just" a name of a programming language. I don't care: it's the principle of the thing. The name was taken, and the only correct thing for Google to do when he stepped forward, was to change the name. That they chose not to really tarnished their image in my eyes, and still does to this day.
It's a shame that the other guy wasn't in a position to / willing to / whatever, sue the pants off of Google at the time.
It is quite a stretch to begin thinking of a company as having turned evil because of that issue.
As a minor detail but nonetheless I think makes a difference, the name of the other language was "Go!", not "Go". That makes the similarity in line with C#, C, C--, C++ and F, F#, F* and several others. Yes in some cases these languages are inspired by the others and in some cases not.
Because the only way this whole thing went down the way it did is if either
A) nobody did the due diligence of checking existing projects with similar names (so negligent as to be evil) or
B) they did the due diligence, found his language and decided "well he probably doesn't have the resources to be any sort of issue for us" directly considering the existence of others only for personal gain with no consideration for consequences for others (straight up evil)
It's a shame that the other guy wasn't in a position to / willing to / whatever, sue the pants off of Google at the time.