Google refutes the idea that Nest will run ads
People love to get mad, especially before all of the facts are in. We see it quite a bit here at Phone Arena, because a big part of our trade is in rumors, which still serve to enrage quite a few people, despite having no verifiable connection to the truth. Of course, there is also the trouble with perspective. From the perspective of some, the facts don't matter and all actions taken by Google, Apple, Samsung, et al will be met with outrage. Today, we saw this first hand because of a story by The Wall Street Journal regarding a Google SEC filing from December.
We asked in the original report for you to keep an open mind, but if you check the comment thread, you'll notice that few heeded that warning. The SEC filing stated, "Our expectation is that users will be using our services and viewing our ads on an increasingly wide diversity of devices in the future." That was curious, but what was worse was that the letter went on to say, "A few years from now, we and other companies could be serving ads and other content on refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities." This, unsurprisingly, led to speculation that Google is planning to serve up ads on Nest thermostats. However, Google has responded to all of the criticism and speculation that has arisen with a statement saying:
We are in contact with the SEC to clarify the language in this 2013 filing, which does not reflect Google's product roadmap. Nest, which we acquired after this filing was made, does not have an ads-based model and has never had any such plans.
Some might note that Google's statement only mentions current and past plans for Nest, and doesn't specifically rule out future plans. Google rarely will completely rule out any potential ad targets, but there have been plenty of times when Google tested out certain ad strategies and abandoned them because they would cause too much discomfort for users.
source: ReadWrite
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