I have never owned a Golden, but we have many, many clients with Goldens, and many, many clients with Labradors. (And I've owned Labradors.)
When you walk into an exam room and the Golden melts into a puddle at your feet and spends the entire exam flipped over on its back so you can give it belly rubs while it tries to just melt into your skin and give you happy kisses....that is a stereotypical Golden.
When you walk into an exam room and the Labrador is just this happy, bouncy ball of tail wagging happiness because ZOMG, you are there to say hi, and ZOMG, you have a treat in your pocket, and ZOMG, you want me to hold still now?!?!....that is a stereotypical Lab.
Granted, not all Golden's melt and a lot of (older) Labs are quite content to hold still and behave, but I think that says a lot about their inherent personality.
When we have a bad Golden come in, we're typically battling some type of fear aggression, or submissive urination issue. When we have a bad Labrador come in, we're typically battling some kind of handler/dog aggression.
Both of them are Retrievers and have similarities based on that. But I think your typical Golden is going to be much more "soft". Like...how a spaniel is soft. I don't really know how to explain it. All of my Labradors have been great watch dogs, and both even showed protective tendencies as well. None of the Goldens I've met have even acted like they would be protective, and their barks were typically, "Yey, someone is HERE!!!!!" barks and not, "Hey, someone is here," barks.
I've met some Goldens that were more "field bred" and they were a blast. Very agile, very quick, very smart, and very trainable, and they didn't have a crap ton of coat like some BYB Goldens do. Just as soft and sweet, however.