• Amazon.com Inc. didn’t just buy a maker of robot vacuum cleaners when it bought Roomba. It’s acquired a mapping company. To be more precise: a company that can make maps of your home.
• The company announced a $1.7 billion deal on Friday for iRobot Corp., the maker of the Roomba vacuum cleaner.
• Sure, Amazon will make money from selling those gadgets. But the real value resides in those robots’ ability to map your house. As ever with Amazon, it’s all about the data.

Tagged: News of the Weird