I'm not going to argue with the Google privacy fear, which has been the main reaction to this news. I know your minds are set on that issue.

But I'd appreciate if anyone could take a break from that usual tune to discuss the potential positives of this acquisition. It would be refreshing. I'll start:

As a home automation enthusiast, I never once considered getting a Nest thermostat or smoke detector. I thought they were great products, but it didn't fit into my vision of home automation. I saw Nest as part of the obnoxious trend of recent home control gadgets that were siloed off from each other and had no way of speaking to one another. That isn't home automation to me.

I admit, I have no way of knowing whether this acquisition will change any of this, but I have more confidence that Google might make home automation products more accessible to the end consumer than any other company before them. So far the market has been a mess.