I used the terminal method to restrict the update requests to once every 30 days. After a month it started coming back several times per hour. While searching for a solution to stop it again I came across this post in another forum:
Hi folks, if you're using the
defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 2500000
method (simply entered into terminal, which delays the check to only once every 2,500,000 seconds, which is once a month -- or change to "0" for never, although if Google ever deigns to fix this, you'll want the update), then keep in mind that you STILL have to "satisfy" the LAST call or it will keep screaming every few minutes! This "defaults" method in IMHO is the best "solution". So let the one call through your filter or firewall to check and finish its update, then this effing virus will shut the poop up for two and a half million seconds -- one month -- until the next check... of course executed sneakily from some new temporary directory. Each month (or whatever you set the interval to) you need to say "yes" to it: to click it through your application filter or firewall just once (well, actually, twice in rapid succession) in order for this to work.
It's a heck of a lot better than every two minutes. And this is the only workaround apparently that the cocky Google royalty "supports", reluctantly, to "opt-out" of what they pretend is in all of our "best interests". (Imagine any other third-party software behaving this way!) I choose the "approved" method instead of deleting or locking files and folders or whatever, to avoid any unintended consequences down the road of mucking with system files, installs or permission changes (which may not stick after updates or routine system tasks.)
Idiot Google.
