Sounds like a mis-communication between recruiter and one or both other sides (whatever Google team the recruiter was recruiting for and the applicant).<p>Of course, it's true that Google has been on a headcount reduction bent for over a year for some departments (and headcount has been capped for many others). It's not been implemented as a total hiring freeze, though...they're just not replacing people who leave those departments. Perhaps one of those departments failed to notify their recruiter that they no longer had new openings.