I like having devices connected to my LAN -- mostly of my own build/programming. But I'm not at all interested in anything that "requires" a cloud server. That's just asking for trouble.

There are some good implementations, eg. ElectricImp, but just about everything out there is the result of some clueless company attempting to DIY it, complete with back doors for convenience.

I tolerate Google because of my smartphone, but generally try to keep even that on the guest LAN rather than the trusted internal LAN here.

It's gonna continue to be chaos for some time, by the looks of things.