Google Is Listening

If Google Home proves more capable than the Echo at responding intelligently to a wide range of queries--and I suspect it will, given Google's expertise in search and natural language--then it might not matter that it has a dumb name. Amazon pioneered the smart speaker category, but Google may be best equipped to perfect it. That could go a long way toward establishing Google Assistant as the new Google search--your default portal to the online realm. How exactly Google will monetize it, the company will have to figure out: Selling ads against search queries is one obvious possibility. Regardless, the history of the Internet suggests that if a company finds a way to monopolize a given type of online behavior, piles of money will follow.