Google sez:
— I’d like to know if this stuff is any good and whether it should be used at all. So here’s a link to the Google “pack.” So far I have been unable to find the desktop search valuable since my drives are too big. Google Earth seems cool. There are a slew of new products that need to be tested. I invite readers to comment of this “Pack.”
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Since I am more than a creationist (System Admin by day, nutcase by night!) – I’ll gladly comment.
I think the google pack has some great uses and some great programs. For anyone of “computer literacy” it is worthless, but for my mom it might just work. I don’t like the inclusion of Real or Norton, personally, though.
Unfortunately, though, Real is installed by the vast masses (as I had to deal with yet again today). So, I could excuse it.
The thing I can’t excuse is norton. Apart from it being quite poor (IMO), there exist no less than 3 decent free AV programs, and one open source. The only thing I can figure is that our friends at Norton are paying google for inclusion. Otherwise it makes no sense.
Apart from that, though, for the computer illiterate (that vast majority of people), having a easy way to spread firefox (not to mention it might just save me time that they have ad-aware) isn’t a bad thing.
The free google stuff is just gravy, really. Most of “us” would have the programs from this we want, but I never once thought it was aimed at me.
It’s a great package for regular, Average Joe users. No problems installing it for friends and family.
It’s a vast corporate/government conspiracy to harvest personal information.
I checked the calendar and it’s my turn to be the paranoid neurotic today. 😉
I’m sorry I don’t have the time to devote to writing long tomes like the other regulars. Maybe I need to be taken out of the rotation.
It’s an excellent idea for people who don’t know a lot about installing sotware. It’s also good for people who set up new computers a lot- why install things like OpenOffice and Firefox seperately when you can take the same .exe file around to all of the compys and install it easily.
Also, you get a couple of neat things that you don’t get anywhere else (AFAIK) like the excellent Google photo screen saver program. It manages to lay out the photos well, and even works fine with a dual-head system.
As for Google Desktop, I really like it. The only thing I go to the Start menu for anymore is the “run” option. I love getting to my programs that much quicker, especially since functions that normally take 6+ clicks through the Start menu and Control Panel are directly accessible. The only downside for me is that it doesn’t do so hot as reindexing. It doesn’t keep track very well when you move files around, so if you move a larg folder, you’ll want to uninstall and reinstall to reindex everything.
Yeah, looks like good stuff … most of the software is at least competent, if not reccomended. Computer literate people like “us” don’t need it, but it’d be good for the 90% of users who don’t know how how to operate their computers.
I use the spell checker which is pretty good. However, if you read the terms of use, Google keeps a record of anything that is spell checked. And the Government can demand records from anybody. Result: the Government keeps a record of anything that is spell checked via the Google toolbar spell checker.
Geroge Bush: READ MY LIPS: YOU SUCK!
… Google keeps a record of anything that is spell checked. And the Government can demand records from anybody.
Well, that was the final thing that convinced me NOT to try it. After a bad experience with Symantec (Norton), trying to have the Indian Division get my subscription to work, and REAL wanting to update every 15 minutes, installing itself in the start menu (uninvited), and taking over all the media forms I will not have either on my computer again.
google is nothing more than a company that wants to data mine you to death. That is their business model.
real player and norton are 2 of the worst software made. if you can find a way to install them, then you can try out the rest.
There are few packages in the pack that, if you use computers professionally, you wouldn’t either have, know of, or have equivilents of.
Real and Norton are the two nasties in there, but they are known brands so probably help ‘sell’ it to people.
I’d really recomend Picassa, its great.
Do NOT trust Google. Eventually, they’ll use the information for GREED… err, uhh, profit,..asd.amf asdfalfsghao … uhh, “the public good and the shareholders”
Since the IPO, GOOGLE is a PUBLIC CORPORATION. The cheesy nose-of-the-brown CEO will try to please the shareholders — to fatten his wallet because of greed — JUST LIKE ALL CEOs DO!!!!
It ALL starts with education. That’s why most “older” people (as in 35+) can’t use computers — they’ve chosen to NOT get educated about them. These are the same dumbf*ckers running bizness as usual.
EDUCATION!!! Know it, learn it, live it. (and pass the word)
I love Google, I just hate what monkeybois greedy f*cks are doing to it.
I use the google-bar all the time in Firefox. I also use Google-Earth to play around sometimes, but just a time-waster for me.
I didn’t download this “pack”, but have bits and pieces of it here and there. I’ve been trying out Google Desktop, but I’m thinking of getting rid of it because the Desktop search is pretty useless for me since I know exactly where everything is on my computer….since I’m the one that put it there in the first place.
Also, I’m not a big tin-foil hat wearer…so I don’t believe that Google is data-mining me or keeping records on what I’m doing to be used against me…unless they want to use the fact that a retired guy searched for pictures of Rebecca Romijn in her Mystique get-up.
Let’s face it, if Google was to turn evil and screw everyone over in terms of privacy, what business sense is that? People are afraid of Google keeping tabs on Gmail….do you honestly think for a moment that your regular email out of Thunderbird or Outlook can’t be watched or stored? Oh, that’s right….you all PGP encrypt every single email. How convenient.
Personally, I think Google is a government conspiracy to have the
global web traffic go through their servers. They give you 3 gigs of
space to save your google emails to rifle through and it’s the biggest
search engine in the world so they know exactly what people are
looking for.
And they released a google calendar so they know when you are not at
home so they can execute secret FISA search warrants for people who
use google earth to view military bases and a nuclear power plants.
Google = Godlike Oblique Observation by Government LEaders
Picassa is a great photo management tool for the beginner and intermediate alike.
Google Desktop is OK, I prefer MSN’s.
Google Earth makes viewing satellite images of the globe easy. I prefer Google Maps. My daughter and I keep a list of the places we’ve been: Notre Dame, Venice, Great Pyramids, Panama Canal, the farm I grew up on in South Dakota, etc. Although access to these images has been around for years on TerraServer.com, Google Earth, and now. MS’s local.live make access to these images a little easier. Local.live sometimes has better images than Google Maps.
was there a full moon last night?
Geez……a couple posts in here sound like someone left the loony bin door open to the computor room.
What makes Google pack a failure in my opinion, is lack of choice. Sure, you can choose to not install specific components, but what I want is a choice between components.
I do want virus protected, but I don’t want Norton. So let me choose from a few different virus scanning programs. I do want a media player, but I don’t want real. So let me choose between a couple different media players.
What happened to my google screen saver pack with my pictures? Now my screen has vertical lines on it, plese tell me what hashapened.