Submitted by As expected, Google on Friday announced several new products. “Google Pack, a bundle of software from Google and other companies that was announced by the Web giant on Friday, is aimed squarely at consumers. But Google’s goal is to be the front end for everything people do on a computer, and enterprise use is not far off, analysts and solution providers said.” Google also enters the video-on-demand business: “Google announced a service Friday that will let people rent or buy downloadable videos online, including classic and contemporary CBS television shows and NBA basketball games.”
I despair at the inclusion of Norton Antivirus.
This will only slow down people’s computers, cost them money, and fail to protect them what-so-ever.
AVG or AVast would have been a better option by far, but I see that money outweighed common sense here.
These “sponsered” inclusions in GooglePack are Google’s first evil act in my mind
“These ‘sponsered’ inclusions in GooglePack are Google’s first evil act in my mind
“
Right, because Google is supposed to be this Open Source-oriented, penguin-hugging, Microsoft-defeating, uber-benevolent awesome awesomeness of a company.
Get real, man. Google is a business. When you run a business, “making money” = “common sense”; that’s the whole point.
Even I know Google is a business, but recommending people software that doesn’t work, infests the user’s system and slows it down as well as charging them an annual subscription, is not putting the user’s best interests in mind. Google makes its money by using common sense; giving tools to simplfy user’s computers and the internet instead of complicating it.
Of course they want to make money, but since their popularity is so much linked to their reputation, I find it odd that they would associate themselves with companies that aren’t exactly the most well seen in the industry. I mean, do they really want Google to be associated with something like RealNetworks, with all the popups and annoyances, etc? Most of the stuff I’ve seen coming out of Google is usually on the opposite of this…
“These ‘sponsered’ inclusions in GooglePack are Google’s first evil act in my mind
“
But you can simply untick the “Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition” on the custom pack page. This immediately makes up for any evil, forced bundling…
Bravo Google!
As a Linux user, I’m ecstatic to hear that there’ll be a (hopefully) universally-available video-purchasing service to compete with the Mac-and-Windows-only iTunes video service.
Has Google made any mention of what format these will come in?
Looks like they’re using DivX DRM or at least DivX compatible DRM… so, if applications support this DRM, I guess it’ll work fine.
But google seens in a rush with the competition… they usually bring new details of the service some time after the windows-focused launch (see Google Talk voice service)… Maybe they’ll make a better statement about it soon.
I’m waiting for Google Soap, Google Cola and Google Currency – Money (they’ll probably disappear from your wallet at speed of the Google
).
To me it seems to me that we are more and more into a war of 4 operating systems, where only 3 of them are actually OS’s. We have Windows, Mac OS X & Linux, and then Google is attempting to do many of the functions of your PC for you.
I’m also intrigued to know how the DRM is going to play out with this new Google thing. Oh, and does this mean you can actually use Norton for free? Do you download in the pack but then what, you can only use it for 90 days?
Edited 2006-01-07 23:30
I mean this by the requirements listed.
The Google Pack page clearly states that you need admin rights to install the package. Now, I am not saying anything there is malware, but how long will it be before “dodgy” sites are saying that you need admin rights to XP so you can view porno of Paris Hilton ?
How many hard up fellas are going to madly type in the password just so they can see Paris nude ?
This is whats known as social engineering…….
I think this is a good thing that they are including some software that Joe Snuffy will recognize. Alot of people have heard of Norton, and seeing it alongside software like Firefox, will help spread it’s popularity. Also it’s 6 months of updates for the Noton Antivirus, which I think is fair. As far as I’ve seen ALL full featured antivirus software slow your computer down. Plus there is the remove option underneath it as well.
All in all I think this is a good deal.
“Alot of people have heard of Norton”
Yeah, complaints about Norton do get around. As someone who’s used it I can tell you I’ll never use it again. Even getting it for free as an OEM product on my computer was paying too much for it.
What drives me nuts about Norton is when it finds a virus and then says it cannot remove it because the OS is already using the file. No other AV solution has ever choked on the Windows file lock mechanism on me like that in all my years using computers.
Hi,
I think people might be overlooking the most interesting part of the bulk pack – Google Updater. A delivery system that is potentially capable of getting software packages onto millions of PCs in a very short amount of time.
How long before commercial software producers start using Google Updater to distribute their products, how much money could Google make by charging these software companies as little as 1% of the sale, and how long before it’s combined with DRM so that you can rent software (which disappears automatically if you forget to pay the monthly fee)?
-Brendan
Why is Openoffice not part of the Pack?
Well, compared to the rest of that software, OOo is massive, probably larger than all the rest of the software combined. Google probably doesn’t want to double the d/l size for just one piece of software.
Norton Antivirus Free?!
Foofie,
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