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I really have no idea. I'm not sure what would be the best route, either. The existing standards all have their own problems.
What I'd love to see is for Google to make a new, unencumbered standard that anyone can use (like Android). License fees seem to hurt the prices of devices based on current standards, but I don't have anything to back that up...
When Google creates stuff it can still have 'encumbrances'. One is that Google later loses interest and subsequently shuts down or abandons the effort.
Another is that the standard is so 'open' that multitudes of variations and not-quite-compatible sub-standards appear.
It can be quite difficult to create a well rounded and substantive standard that is not reliant on a specific funding model. Would Google have interest in a standard which did not allow Google to peer into the data?
We like standards, but 'we' often want them to be 'free' (that is, somebody else is paying for the creation, maintenance and future proofing of said standard).
That's all true, but here's the thing: someone has to do it, and why not Google?
The fact is, there are already several standards for home automation. I use ZWave, but there's also Insteon, Zigbee, X10, and others. None of these standards talk to each other, but they've lasted as long as they have because enough companies have created products around each standard to outfit a home to the extent that people are happy with.
We might as well give Google a try here, because the current trend is to create businesses around a product and not a standard. When that happens, the path to an automated home full of products that talk to each other is slowed or blocked completely.
Don't get me wrong, I have very little optimism that Google can pull this off. It's going to be a HARD thing to do. But there has to be some way to integrate the products in this space because it's only then that you can do some really cool things with this stuff.
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