Do you remember my long post about ads for voice assistants? According to the poll I’ve made - about 70% of this channel readers were against taking an ads-supported Google Home/Amazon Echo for free. But I have a very interesting piece of news for you: some Google Home owners reported hearing something extra when they asked for a summary of the day ahead from the smart speaker: an advertisement for the opening of Beauty and the Beast.

But Google denied that the audio snippet was actually an ad, initially providing this rather strange statement: “This isn't an ad; the beauty in the Assistant is that it invites our partners to be our guest and share their tales.”

So, while ads on connected speakers feel like a deal breaker right now, they’re probably going to become the norm pretty soon.

http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/3/16/14948696/google-home-assistant-advertising-beauty-and-the-beast