smart t/stats and smoke detectors.  $3.2B

Soon Nest thermostats will report back to Google and you will start seeing furnace ads, insulation ads, filter ads and replacement window ads. And when your smoke detector goes off you'll get home contractor ads while you are calling the fire dept.

Courtesy Larry and Sergey.

/sarcasm

A few days ago, there were articles aplenty about G & android making a move into the automobile electronics market.  If they are able to gain significant foothold in smartphones, smartautos, and smarthomes it will be one helluva trifecta.

Abandon hope all ye who enter ...anywhere.

Reddit: "You'll have to have a Google+ account to enter the house though."

True.

http://qz.com/166473/googles-nest-acquisition-will-speed-along-the-smart-grid/

Read about Nest in the Economist last year and thought to myself, "Yep, there's a winner":

http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21572922-tony-fadell-helped-revolutionise-music-and-phone-industries-now-he-turning

You have to give credit to Google. They are ahead of the curve in pretty much everything. Problem is they're going to end up as some kind of AI God.

Watch, they will get into home security too.  Google Now combined with smart homes and smart home security could be powerful.  Didn't Google invest in facial recognition tech a few years ago?  That would tie in with the home stuff.

Also, if somebody breaks in your home Google can serve lawyer ads to them.   

>They are ahead of the curve in pretty much everything. Problem is they're going to end up as some kind of AI God.

I assume that they are using their massive data-mining and trend-determining capabilities to analyze and help determine their acquisitions.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/shooting-for-the-moon-google-hopes-to-own-the-future/?_r=0

Look at the technology landscape today and what do you see? A few companies — Facebook, Yahoo, Apple, Twitter and Google — competing for the same sorts of revenue: advertising, search, location and some mobile hardware.

Now look into the future of the technology landscape and what do you see? I'll answer that for you: Google, Google and Google.

Short article from a site that I think tends to get it right more often than not. Worth a read.

http://daringfireball.net/2014/01/googles_acquisition_of_nest

<added>

That's a good NYT article, Mike. I found another one while there:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/google-and-nest-two-companies-in-the-business-of-understanding-you/

Damn! I am just about to buy a NEST. A couple of friends have them for their vacation rentals and it's handy to know if the guest is running the A/C and the fireplace at the same time... But I fear this:

Quote from: rcjordan on January 14, 2014, 03:40:14 AM
Reddit: "You'll have to have a Google+ account to enter the house though."

Interesting - not their first purchase in this area: http://www.seobythesea.com/2014/01/nest-googles-first-big-home-automation-purchase/

>not their first purchase

Nice find, RT.

BTW, it's kind of interesting that among the articles written for general consumption, I'd say the mood is one of uneasiness.  The Verge says it outright
http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/14/5307530/why-is-everyone-disappointed-by-google-buying-nest

I think it's partly surveillance worry. It's also partly that NEST is the Apple of thermostats (the inventor is an ex Applian). It's expensive, elegant and has a "we care about the user" feel to it. Now it's part of the Gorg. I think it's hard for people to like that even apart from privacy concerns.