The Wall Street Journal noticed an interesting line in a letter that Google filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission back in December, but was first disclosed this week. The company wrote, “[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.” Just weeks after the letter was filed, Google purchased the popular smart-thermostat company Nest, which uses apps, interactive schedules and Internet technology to more inefficiently regulate temperatures in your home. Though the information that Google is able to learn from the thermostats is valuable, the inclusion of thermostats in the list of devices that “companies” may want to run ads on seems conveniently timed. There’s got to be some way that they can recoup the $3.2 billion investment in Nest …
