I love Google. They can almost do no wrong, or at least so I thought. They’ve released two big bombs recently, the Google Video store and Google Pack. Google Video has never been the most pleasant or helpful experience, and selling video content hasn’t helped it. Most videos are too expensive with too restrictive DRM.
Google Pack a one-stop-shop for downloading system utilities and Google software (surprise, surprise). It includes Google Earth, Google Desktop, Picasa, Google Toolbar for IE, Google Pack Screensaver, Firefox with Google Toolbar, AdAware SE, Norton AntiVirus 2005 SE, and Adobe Acrobat Reader 7. You can optionally installed Trillian, Google Talk, Real Player, and GalleryPlayer HD Images. It also has the capability to auto-update. I’m all for auto-updating, and I do like a lot of those applications, such as the Google Desktop, AdAware, and Firefox. I’m not as thrilled with Real or Norton AV, though. The idea is to make it easy to add apps for new machines without having to go through a half-dozen downloads and installs. I’m not sold on it being especially useful, though.