 Google has become indispensable. It's the first place you go whenever you need to find information on anything. It's on our computers, it's on our phones, sometimes it's even in our cars and on our wrists. Now Google wants to be in our homes and apartments and its new $129 Google Home voice-activated speaker is exactly how it's doing. Now it's impossible to talk about Google Home without also talking about Amazon's Echo and they are very similar. Both are voice-activated connected smart speakers that can play music, control a bunch of smart home devices, add things to your to-do list or shopping list, and do a bunch of web searches all with just your voice. Now Google has further ambitions for home that go beyond what Amazon's currently doing but let's start with the device itself. The home is shorter and squatter than the Echo and to be honest it looks a lot like an air fresher. I don't really think that's a bad thing. It makes it really easy to integrate into home and it doesn't stick out like an obvious piece of gadgetry. Now it's only available in white but you can buy various fabric and metal shells to customize it to your home decor. On top is a touch panel that lets you control volume, play or pause your music, and activate the speaker's listening feature. Now integrated into this panel are far-field microphones so it can hear you from across the room. You can activate it with just your voice by saying okay Google or hey Google and it can even hear you when you're playing music or other audio. Now as a smart speaker the home is pretty much just as good as the Echo. It gets surprisingly loud and can fill a room with sound and in addition to the built-in sources of Google, YouTube Music, Pandora, and Spotify you can cast audio to it from your phone or your laptop. Hey Google play my discover weekly. Alright playing your Spotify playlist called discover weekly. Hey Google skip this track. It's not the kind of speaker you'd use to drive a house party but for everyday listening it's perfectly fine. Now if you do want more power you can send the home's audio to a Chromecast audio that's connected to a larger speaker. You just say hey Google play this music on Chromecast audio and the audio will just shift right over. You can also pair multiple home units together and simultaneously play music through all of them. In addition Google's also added the ability to send video from the home to a Chromecast. Hey Google play the Rogue One trailer on the Chromecast. Sure playing Rogue One trailer from YouTube on Chromecast. This is still very limited it only works with YouTube right now. Now finally the home can also control smart home gadgets. Right now it supports Nest, Philips Hue, and SmartThings which means you can control your thermostat, your lights, and other gadgets with just your voice. Now I've used this a lot and I found that the home is a little bit more reliable than the Echo for doing this. I usually only have to ask it once to do its thing. But the biggest thing that sets the home apart is the fact that it's Google's search engine and algorithms powering it. That means you can ask it many of the same things you ask Google on the computer and get similar results. Hey Google how long would it take me to walk to San Francisco? On foot the trip to San Francisco is 40 days in one hour. Even better Google home can remember the context of what you ask it. The president of the United States of America is Barack Obama. Hey Google when was he born? He was born on August 4th 1961. Hey Google who was the president before him? George W Bush according to the Telegraph 43 George W Bush January 20th 2001 January 20th 2009 Republican President. Hey Google where was he born? He was born in New Haven Connecticut. Now the only thing that really spoils this experience is you have to say okay Google before each and every question you ask it. But like the video casting features the home's assistant is more limited than you might expect. For starters it only works with one Google account at a time and that makes it really hard to use it as a family device. So if my wife asks Google home to add something to a to-do list it gets added to my to-do list and my devices not hers. Google says that it is working on this and it does plan to add multiple account support in the future. I also can't use the home's assistant to do things I'm used to doing on my phone such as sending messages or making phone calls. Hey Google send a message to Dieter I think I'm gonna be late. Sorry I can't send messages yet. Google really wants its home to be the access point to its services in your house for all those times when your hands are full or you're not looking at a screen. Right now it's mostly just a better Echo. It's easier to set up, it looks a little nicer, and it's a little bit more reliable. But it's easy to see the potential here how Google can leverage its existing services and search powers to go way beyond what Amazon's doing. But then the question remains are you ready to have an always listening Googlebot in your house? Integrated into... Why am I getting a call? Jesus Christ. Or I could say hey Google play some Halloween music for a spooky night. That's really lame. Can we come up with a better example?