"Tomorrow Google will announce a new commercial video download service, according to multiple sources. In related news Google will also take the wraps off of Google Pack, a bundle of applications that will be made available for download in a single installation bundle. Sources tell us that Google pack will feature a Google-tweaked version of Firefox, Adobe Acrobat Reader, antivirus software from Symantec, AdAware, Trillian, and Google's own offerings, including Google Desktop Search, Picasa, Google Earth, Google Talk, and all of the toolbar action you can shake a stick at. Oh, and I left out one other item: the RealPlayer."
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2005-10-19
Google is once again totally ignoring the non-Windows percentage of the market. For a supposed backer of open source, Google would need test equipment to prove it to me at this point.
This appears to me to be 100% targeted at Windows users. Has Google ever released a single one of their own applications for an open source platform????
Member since:2005-12-04
Has Google ever released a single one of their own applications for an open source platform????
http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/index.html
Member since:2005-09-10
And why is that a problem exactly? They are not competing with open source products? Is there something you really miss from that list?
On the other hand, it supports open source in various ways (Summer of Code is just one of them). Yeah, they are "once again totally ignoring the non-Windows percentage of the market." I'd say that's excellent! Google is competing against windows and windows software, not against free software. You see, if they released a linux version of google talk, where would that leave GAIM of Kopete or other projects? Ironically, they might even receive funds from Google for implementing Google Talk in the next Summer of Code initiative...
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2005-07-06
I know what most of you are going to say "mac's only have xx% of the marketshare- blah blah blah".
Even with a small percentage (and lets not get into the marketshare vs installed base flame wars again, please) there are still A LOT of macs out there.
There is no mention that google pack will have a mac version!
What is the matter here?
Also, I would give google my money, if they had the content that I want - but I sure hope it plays on my mac 
(and pocketPC and iPod for that matter:p)
Member since:2005-07-22
Well, to be fair though, I have no need of an anti-virus of anti-spyware on my Mac.
Desktop Search is pretty much covered by Spotlight.
Trillian - well I use Adium already and it suits me just fine.
Firefox - I already have Safari, Firefox and plenty of others if I want them
Acrobat Reader - er, Preview is faster and nicer
Picasa - Already have iPhoto, although I do find iPhoto to be quite annoying and buggy at times. Picasa is nice, but I prefer the iPhoto "way" - I want a mix of the 2!
Google Earth I have a Beta version of and I'm sure that in time it will eventually be available to mac Users (hopefully Linux etc. as well)
Google Talk - Err why Google Talk AND Trillian? But anyway, Adium again
RealPlayer - Already have it but use it as little as possible.
Member since:2005-07-06
Because Mac already has all the good software either bundled with the operating system (iChat, iPhoto, etc. etc.) or the download is easy to locate, such as the MSN Messenger replacement called aMSN, which manages to support features that Microsofts Mac group couldn't seemed to be figged supporting.
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2005-07-06
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"...antivirus software from Symantec"
I lost interest at that point. I'd rather put up with viruses.
(I haven't tried symantec products for more than two years now, for I've been avoiding the resource-hog bloat/mediocreware, difficult_to_removeware crap that NAV is like a plague. Things might have changed since then.)
Member since:
2005-10-18
This is interesting news, and it seems like that’s all the news we're getting from Google lately. Interesting, but no cigar.
This sounds like a good idea, the Real player thing sounds weird, but understandable to some degree. I've used Real Player before, it's a decent player, but a pain in the butt to use sometimes (won't go into details to stay on topic, but I got rid of it). I'm guessing that a lot of the softwares in the pack, ASSUMING this is all for real, are heavily modded.
A modded Firefox sounds interesting and is probably what Google would use to sell the entire thing. Perhaps with the Internet accelerator that I read about that Google offers built directly into Firefox? I hope that you can select which components to install, cause some of those products are useless to me.
I'm sure Google would release this stuff to other platforms/OSs.
We just have to wait on Google's word. At a press conference sometime soon:
Either a: "yeah, we are going to support all these platforms!" or a: "No, this is just a rumor guys, sorry to disappoint you."
I'm starting to wonder if these rumors are done intentionally by Google as a form of advertising.... Sounds evil, but I still love Google
--ZaNkY
Member since:2005-07-22
"This sounds like a good idea, the Real player thing sounds weird, but understandable to some degree. I've used Real Player before, it's a decent player, but a pain in the butt to use sometimes (won't go into details to stay on topic, but I got rid of it)."
Yeah, realplayer is a mess. I think they should have included real alternative, quicktime alternative, and media player classic instead.
Also, isn't Symantec Antivirus a product that you have to pay for? I wasn't aware of any free versions before now.
Member since:2006-01-06
RealPlayer formerly was a mess, especially in it's RealOne incarnation, but 10.5 is perfectly fine, and three times smaller than iTunes to download, which considering all it's functionality (if you like an all-in-one) is pretty good. The spying is there still, but it's optional, id est a few checkboxes that install tracking cookies to IE.
The only problem I have with RealPlayer at the moment is that for Ogg Vorbis support in the Windows version you need to install a patch, and unfortunately while that means you can play the files, RealPlayer is still unable to read Vorbis comments (maybe Real read the book though and decided they don't want to know what Vorbis thinks about music).
Member since:
2006-01-03
He he Firefox probably will have google toolbar included.
Also will that pack will be commercial or free. If free, some of these programs are shareware or Google will buy the "unlimited" licences. For commercial also - Firefox has licence for that way.
And another thing - what purpose of that pack? It may saound stupid, but who will use it? It's comfortabe, etc, but most users installs everything by themselves and what they needs.
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2005-11-30
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If Google keeps coming out with such totally boring and useless product/services anouncements, they're going to kill off their "hipness".
Who cares about a Google bundle pack? All that stuff you can already get, and it's completely useless to get "Google branded" stuff, when you can already get it without Google branding.
This could be a sign that the Google brass' heads are all getting too fat.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very pro Google, and think they are doing a lot of great stuff (search, Google Earth). But this Google bundle pack is nothing worth paying attention to.
I'm also sick of them saying that they are very pro open source, or pro cross platform, when they release Windows only software, when the stuff could easily be release with cross platform tools. Apparently, Google Earth was developed with C#.Net. Thus, it could have easily been done with Java or C++/QT.
C'mon, Google, give me a reason to get excited about your product offerings again!
Member since:2005-07-06
google has never exited anyone but has just become compelling by delivering the best of search and the least intrusive and sometimes useful web advertising.
But they are not really a platform, and I wouldn't call any desktop search tool 'exiting'. Google earth ? Yeah fine, but what's the point ?
Google = search engine that knows the place of advertising.
Member since:2005-07-06
I wouldn't be that bitter, but personally a more hype driven thing would have been the release of a Google branded OpenOffice.org coupled with the ability to use your online GMail male storage as a place to save documents.
Another possibilikty would have been, along with the OpenOffice.org bundle, to offer online services such as collaboration tools to small and medium businesss as to avoid the huge costs that would be associated with installing somethingn like Sharepoint (Or something similar to that).
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This new Google Video download service - another big sleeper, also a big red flag.
Since they are partnering up with media companies, we all know that the stuff will be severely crippled with the latest DRM crap du jour, so that people can only play it on the PC they downloaded it on, and with the media player of Google's (or Microsoft's, or CBS's) choice.
I liked the Google PC an OS rumor much better. As inplausible as that might have been, it was most certainly a lot more interesting and exciting. Just think, a white hot company like Google steps in to shake up a dying and boring industry (home PCs), and offers exciting new bundled software and services.
Now that would be interesting.
Instead they announce video downloads and a Google branded bundle pack. No thanks - that's completely, utterly, nausiatingly BORING AND USELESS. ;-)
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"It is somewhat interesting that the most useful parts of the "Google Pack" aren't actually Google products. Firefox, Acrobat Reader, AdAware, and even Trillian are all actually pretty useful."
Yes they are very useful, but it's the Google branding and bundling that's useless. That is, unless Google adds some extra features/extensions/services to those products that makes them more useful/cool then there "plain" versions.
I guess we'll see tomorrow!
Member since:2006-01-01
Oh, I agree that the bundle is pointless. I just find it interesting that the majority of the value in the bundle is the third-party software. Often the third-party software installed in a bundle is junk you unselect (or remove with AdAware) to avoid being installed with the useful piece of software that you want. In this case you're downloading a branded package of software, and the most useful pieces are the third-party items.
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"I was under the impression it WAS written in QT. Check for the qt-mt334.dll that it installs. "
Wow! You are absolutely, positively correct. I checked the install directory for Google Earth on my Windows PC (dual booting with Mandriva 
), and sure enough, qt-mt334.dll is there.
I very happily stand corrected!
When Google Earth was released I read on one of the developer blogs (or one of the press releases) that it was written with .Net tools. However, that still could be true because QT can be integrated into Visual C++ .Net.
And if it does use QT entirely, Google Earth would just require a recompile for Mac, Linux, and Solaris, and it would be good to go. Unless, of course, they are using the Win32 API and/or the managaed extensions.
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2005-11-10
OS X already ships with:
-An excellent, safe and standards-compliant web browser.
-PDF read/write support built into the OS and available in every application.
-An excellent, ad-free and AIM-compatible IM client.
-An excellent digital photo managing application.
-Spotlight (vs. Google Desktop Search)
And antivirus and antispyware software are not currently necessary on OS X.
Seems to me the Google pack is designed to address shortcomings and fix problems with Windows. That's why there's no Mac version.
Member since:
2005-07-24
Well, I hate the bundle but it could be a great business idea. Here is how it goes:
1. Bundle all the stuff a typical windows user will install sooner or later (antivirus, acrobat, firefox, a mediaplayer, photo stuff, instant msging.. all seems reasonable)
2. Make it easy to install in one go, without any hassle for the average user (one click installer)
3. Brand it so everyone knows it's Google (free advertising)
4. Either licence it to oems (wich would allow them to ship their PCs with "Windoes Advanced") or turn it into the number one download and profit from it.
Sounds like a plausible idea to me.
Edited 2006-01-06 12:34
Member since:2005-07-06
Well, I hate the bundle but it could be a great business idea. Here is how it goes:
1. Bundle all the stuff a typical windows user will install sooner or later (antivirus, acrobat, firefox, a mediaplayer, photo stuff, instant msging.. all seems reasonable)
2. Make it easy to install in one go, without any hassle for the average user (one click installer)
3. Brand it so everyone knows it's Google (free advertising)
4. Either licence it to oems (wich would allow them to ship their PCs with "Windoes Advanced") or turn it into the number one download and profit from it.
Sounds like a plausible idea to me.
Not a new idea nor an idea any person with winzip and a internet connection can't create themselves. Everyone is expecting earth shattering ideas from Google "the MicroSoft killer" and all we get is this crap. goes to prove that Google is all show and no go.
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2006-01-06
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2005-07-12
Here is, I think, the best theory of all about what Google is up to:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060105.html
"Google imagines a world where only single people see match.com ads, and people who can't drive see ads from taxi companies where others see Toyota campaigns. Where fraternities see ads for strip clubs, beer, Cancun weekends and LSAT prep courses, and only seniors (and their adult children) see ads for Alzheimer's drugs. What would be the value of that increased efficiency, capitalized into present dollars? Ten billion? Fifty billion? I say the value is $100 billion -- 25 percent of the total U.S. advertising market and 15 times Google's current size."
So from this standpoint, Google's video downloads and software bundle becomes more interesting. It's about more highly targeted advertising (as opposed to TV advertising which is not highly targeted). Also, from the consumer's perspective, video downloads could be interesting because you can pick and choose exactly what you want, as opposed to all or nothing that you typically get with cable or sattelite packages.
For me, for instance, it would be great if I could download European soccer games (I'm a huge soccer fan, even though I'm American), without having to subscribe to "America's Top 180" from Dish, and get (and pay for) a ton of crap I don't want or need along with Fox Sport World (which shows games from various Euro leagues). As it stands now, to get my soccer, I also have to get a bunch of home shopping networks, kiddie channels, Oprah's network, etc etc.
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2005-07-06
