You may not have a Nest thermostat, but the news that the Works with Nest program is shutting down is important to you in any case. First, it's yet another example of Google shutting down a product that had attracted a lot of users and developers. And second, and perhaps more significantly, it's an example from Google of what is being called "ecosystem lock-in" - that is, the inability of a product to work with anything outside its home ecosystem. That's what we had with Microsoft, as it used Windows-only features to try to create a Microsoft-only internet - until the antitrust regulators stepped in. That's what we have with Apple, which makes products that only work with other Apple products. Now we see it from Google. I'm sure their stockholders will be happy, even if it leaves the rest of us poorer and more poorly served. See also Ars Technica.
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