Google Pack
Posted by Neil Crosby on January 9, 2006 10:06 PM
On the 6th, the boys (and girls) at Google released the Google Pack, a set of (mostly) free tools that people using the internet should (mostly) have installed. The line-up includes Firefox (with the Google Toolbar pre-installed), Ad-Aware SE Personal, Adobe Reader 7, Real Player, Norton Anti-Virus (with a 6 month subscription), and a whole host of Google applications. You can also choose to add RealPlayer, Trillian and GoogleTalk to the package is you so wish.
Ostensibly the aim of the package is to provide users with a load of applications in one place that will make their internet based life easier and more secure. It’s a bit of a shame then that the antivirus software that they’ve chosen to distrubute with the pack is one that you ultimately have to fork out money to keep up to date. Surely AVG Free or AntiVir would have been a better choice, as then users can install and “forget” - forever having a nice piece or antivirus kit that won’t cost them a penny and won’t sit there being essentially useless after six months when the free subscription has run out.
Of course, the real reason for The Pack is to get Google onto far more users’ desktops. The Pack will communicate back and forth with Google if you let it, allowing it to let you know when updates are available to your installed software and perhaps recommend new software (such as Open Office perchance?) when it becomes available for download.
This is another google download that I won’t be getting for myself on this machine, but the next time I do have a Windows box to set up, guess where I’ll be heading for a quick shot of installation goodness?