Amazon Is Taking Over Your Home

gets a lot of attention for its success as an e-commerce firm. The company's efforts to expand into delivery services has been a hot topic among investors as well, but one of the company's biggest projects with arguably the most potential is one the public has paid very little attention to— smart home integration. Echo Amazon introduced its Echo speaker and virtual assistant Alexa to a muted response from customers. The speaker offered similar functionality to Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana, but it appears that was only the first step in the company's efforts to cement its place inside customers' homes. Now, Echo is able to interact with a

, including Belkin's WeMo devices and Philips Hue products. The company recently announced plans to

with connected thermostats like Nest and Ecobee as well. As the number of connected devices increases, Echo is becoming more and more capable as a control hub for users.

Not only is Echo ingraining itself in the smart home revolution, but the company's Dash button is likely to do the same. While the current model of Amazon's dash button allows users to retrofit the devices around their homes to order products they've run out of, the future is likely to see companies integrate the buttons into their connected devices as well. That means customers who buy a particular printer may soon find a

that allows them to quickly and easily buy new ink cartridges when theirs are running low.

While other companies like

have also rolled out smart home offerings, Amazon's efforts differ in that the firm has opened its services up to all interested device makers. That means that unlike with Apple products, customers don't have to commit themselves to a particular system. Instead they can rely on Echo to connect seamlessly with a variety of different systems.