Originally Posted By: drakino
Originally Posted By: K447
Originally Posted By: Dignan
What I'd love to see is for Google to make a new, unencumbered standard that anyone can use (like Android).

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?

When has Google made or used an unencumbered standard, and stuck to it without restrictions? Based on Google's past behavior, I'd answer no to K447's question.

Well, depending on what you mean by "unencumbered", there's the VP9 video codec. That does have a pretty extensive IP portfolio backing it (as do the video standards coming out of the MPEG group), but it's open and royalty-free (unlike the standards coming out of the MPEG group). Whether or not Google will eventually abandon VP9, like they did VP8, I couldn't say, as H.265 doesn't (yet) have the same dominance that VP8's competition, H.264, did when VP8 was released.

They also developed SPDY, which is being used as the starting point for the HTTP 2.0 standard.

And they certainly use HTML5.

So, off the top of my head, there are three unencumbered standards that Google has made, contributed to, or used. They're also members of the Open Handset Alliance, which develops a lot of standards being used in Android (that are open for use in non-Android phones, too).

So, it's not impossible.

But I do think it's unlikely. I think Nest is going to go the same route as other home automation brands. Their stuff will work with their stuff, and they're not interested in being "integrated" into a system filled with a bunch of NIH devices.