Google's Nest purchase will mean 'infinitely more intelligent' products

Learning Thermostat by Nest Labs. The smart thermostat responds to its user's behavior and can cut heating and utility bills. (©Nest)

Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt claims his company's purchase of smart thermostat company Nest will lead to products that are "infinitely more intelligent."

Speaking exclusively to The Guardian, Schmidt described Google's purchase of Nest earlier this month as an "important bet" and asked the publication's readers to imagine how much better products like smart thermostats and smoke alarms will become with Google's technology applied to them.

Nest was started by ex-Apple star Tony Fadell (known in Silicon Valley as the father of the iPod) and its products have been a hit because of how they improve their performance and efficiency based on learning more and more about their users' behavior.

Although Google was always an investor in the company, the search giant's decision to buy the company outright for a reported $3.2 billion has raised concerns among Nest's existing users who are less than comfortable with the idea of Google having access to their data.

The outrage has been such that Fadell moved quickly to reassure existing and potential customers that any changes would be clear and transparent and that any decision to share data would be on an opt-in, rather than opt-out, basis.

"If there were ever any changes whatsoever [to the privacy policy], we would be sure to be transparent about it, number one, and number two for you to opt-in to it," he said during an appearance at the DLD conference in Munich on Monday.

In December it was reported that Google had been testing smart thermostats and developing programs for them in the hopes of creating a suite of smart tools that will help consumers monitor, understand and eventually curtail their energy use.

Although Google declined to comment on the stories, it does have a history of attempting to use its significant resources to try to improve infrastructure. In 2009 it launched something called PowerMeter which was intended to help consumers cut their energy use but due to poor adoption rates was axed in 2011. The Nest acquisition suggests that the company has unfinished business in this area.