Google builds ‘Nest’ for future
WHEN our internet-connected gadgets and home appliances all learn to talk to each other, Google wants to be at the centre of the conversation.
This imagined future is still a few years away, but Google is already preparing with its US$3.2 billion (NZ$3.84b) acquisition of hi-tech thermostat and smoke-detector maker Nest Labs.
The deal announced last week will provide Google with more tools to build a valuable hub for homes.
Nest Labs quickly won over gadget lovers with its 2011 release of an internet-connected thermostat that learns to cool and heat homes to suit the needs of the inhabitants.
Late last year, the company followed up with a smoke and carbon-monoxide detector equipped with voice technology and the ability to communicate with the company’s thermostat.
Google hasn’t disclosed its specific plans for Nest, but analysts anticipate an entire line of internetconnected home products will be coming to countries around the world.
Some of those Nest devices could be melded with existing Google services in an effort to make people’s lives easier.
Such a move also would provide Google with the means to gather more insight that could be used to sell the digital advertising that generates most of the company’s revenue.