Google Pack was released in early 2006 as a pack of programs that Google deemed as essential for the PC.
At the original writing of this article, Google Pack came with Adaware, Firefox, and other great tools. But for whatever reason, Google has removed them from the Google Pack download.
Google Earth
Have you ever wanted to instantly view anywhere in the world? Well with Google Earth you can. Google Earth allows you to view satelite images of the world up close. A better description of it is Google Maps times a million.
The program is for broadband users (do to the endless number of images you’ll be instantly downloading as you view the world), so if you’ve got dial up you might want to think twice about use this program.
The program comes in three versions: Free, Plus, and Pro.
Google Desktop
Using things called “Gadgets” you can add hundreds of features and tools to your desktop using a sidebar.
The sidebar can be set to display above everything, under everything, or a few other positions.
With this sidebar thing comes something Windows XP users have been needing for a while. A fast (just as fast as Google’s search engine most of the time) search for your computer.
The search is restricted to documents (word, text, images, html files, etc.), but its still a very helpful thing to have. More information on GDS can be found here.
This is comparable to Vista’s Sidebar. In fact, when I bought my Vista computer, it came with Google Desktop loaded instead of Sidebar and for a few hours I couldn’t tell the difference.
Picasa
If you’re a photographer, or just a person with a gazillion (or something like that) images, Picasa is for you.
In just a few moments after being started, Picasa hunts down and finds all of the images on your computer. But that’s not all it does.
Picasa organizes your images by year, allows you to further organize your images without leaving Picasa, lets you password project photo collections, and much more.
Google Toolbar
Using Google Toolbar, you can easily search using Google no matter what web site you’re on.
It is available for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. There’s really not much to say about this, since its pretty self explanatory. It works well with Firefox, because a lot of Firefox theme developers make it so the search bar blends in with their theme.
Photo Screensaver
If you’ve got yourself a bunch of awesome pictures and you’ve always wanted to make your own screensaver, then this is the program for you! Using Photo Screensaver, you can take pictures from your computer (or the internet) and turn them into a working screenaver.
Adobe Reader
Adobe reader is a free reader for Adobe’s PDF format. It’s like Adobe Acrobat without the editing/creating functions.
This is definitely a must have for those in the business world, as well as those that like to read the 500mbs worth of Star Wars books you downloaded (and by “those” I mean me).
Norton Security Scan/Spyware Doctor Starter Edition
Norton is a virus remover and Spyware Doctor SE takes care of trojans, adware, spyware, etc. These two don’t really require much explanation.
Personally, I would exclude these two from your download and pick up Adaware instead.
Google Talk
Google Talk is a simple and easy to use IMing software that lets you chat with GMail users around the world. GMail comes with this program built into their inboxes, but you can also download it and run it like you would AIM, MSN, etc. Google Talk also lets you do voice conversations.
Skype
Skype is basically the same thing as Google Talk, but without the GMail aspect. Its interface is no where near as simple or easy to use as Google Talk’s, but its still a great IMing program that I use everyday.