Google added another edge to its wide variety of products, agreeing to purchase smoke alarm maker Nest for $3.2 billion, USA Today reported.

Starting out as just a search engine, Google now offers email, PCs, tablets, smartphones and now in-home technology. Dubbed "the Internet of things," Google has adopted the concept of interconnecting a range of devices under a single roof to share data.

Based on Palo Alto, Calif., Nest makes aesthetically styled digital smoke alarms and thermostats. Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets can control nest's in-home products, which have generated positive reviews. There is no telling what in-home product Google and Nest will try and connect to the Internet.

"This was methodically planned - this was not a slapdash kind of thing over a weekend," Nest CEO Tony Fadell, 44, told USA Today. "This has been going on since the summer, when we started to think about raising money and when we also wanted to partner with certain teams at Google for technology, for infrastructure for various things."

Forrester analyst Frank Gillett said the move is an obvious sign that Google is aiming to develop a "connected home."

"It also shows Google increasingly believes in hardware-software solutions such as Nest has built, rather than building operating systems," he said.

A former Apple employee, Fadell brought some of the company's talent with him to create Nest. Gartner analyst Van Baker said Apple and Nest are not a fit for each other since Google wants "home automation" and Apple wants "home entertainment."

"If you look at it as a home automation play, that is a very much up-and-coming area," Baker told USA Today.

Google CEO Larry Page commended Fadell and Nest co-founder Matt Rogers and said he is "excited" to welcome their team.

"I work on visions and creating products and businesses that I believe in and other people take notice," Fadell said. "And, in this case, Google did."