First Click: Are you getting an Amazon Echo or Google Home?

This week something amazing happened. For the first time, my family liked a new piece of home automation gear as much as I did. The device in question? The Echo Dot from Amazon.
I knew Alexa's voice assistant would solve a lot of my smart home problems by removing the friction that exists between most smart-home devices and the humans trying to use them — usually from an app. Nevertheless, I was surprised by the delight my wife expressed when controlling the mix of Philips Hue and Z-Wave l