I think you guys are vastly underestimating Google. Google Now is already more useful to me than Echo will ever be. Wait until you can make phone calls with the thing without picking up a phone. Google Fiber, Project Fi, Hangouts, Google Search (second to none), Chromecast, the entire Android ecosystem. My only concern is how long it has taken Google to get this started. This was a no-brainer. I'll be curious to see how open Google is with this, it could take off fast if they make it dead simple for others to get on board.
The Verge has a good article about it:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/18/11...istant-io-2016