Google: Leader of the Pack?

Forget the Google Video store announcement… people have been clamoring over that rumor (and now, fact) for days… The thing that jumps out most to me is Google Pack. Why hasn’t someone thought of something like it before? With Google Pack, you get an application (trusted, we hope) that can manage safe, useful software for your computer. We’re not just talking Google stuff here, either. We’re talking about Ad-Aware, Adobe Reader 7, Norton Antivirus 2005 SE, Mozilla Firefox, Trillian… PLUS all of the great stuff coming out of Google these days – Google Earth, Picasa, Google Talk, etc. Sounds great, doesn’t it? So far, I’m really digging it.

There are definite pros to having this sort of application manage “trusted” apps for you. They’re easy to install and uninstall, it’s software given the thumbs up by Google… I like that management of applications could be seperated from my operating system. Microsoft doesn’t always do things right, or well for that matter. The only con I’ve identified is that it’s letting Google a little deeper into your system… by allowing it to see what software you’re installing on your system.

If you haven’t grabbed the Pack, or parts of it, you might want to check it out.