Michael Arrington links to Erica Joy’s screenshots of Google Notebook.
The product doesn’t look like what I thought it would, but I can’t wait to see it revealed to the public next week and give it a test drive.
Paul Thurrott tries out Google Pack (beta). It appears after all that several of the apps are quite impolite.
“… though some of the applications are quite good, most of them spew system tray, Quick Launch, and desktop icons all over your system, and silently pad your PC with additional tasks to run at boot-up, slowing the boot process and taking up valuable resources.”
After trying out the pack, Paul sums it up this way:
“…this initial version of Google Pack is an embarrassment to the company. It’s just a mess.”
Too bad. I hope Google doesn’t get discouraged. I’d really like to see an archive/backup service Google style. Please. Pretty please.
On Friday Google launched Google Pack–a suite that includes Picasa, Google Toolbar, a limited version of Norton AntiVirus and more. Google Pack is OK, but what I really want Google to provide is what might be called Google Archive or Google Sync.
I want a utility that can sync and back up my data to their servers and with my other systems. In terms of the mass market, this is an unsolved problem and one I’d like to see Google tackle. To do it well, it needs a client side as well as server infrastructure. Google can do this.
Till then will I download Google Pack? Nope. The apps in the collection are available elsewhere and quite frankly are akin to lots of freebie stuff that companies are always clamouring for us to install. I’m never quite sure what I can trust–not just in terms of security, but in terms of what will politely install on my machine, that is will it be intrusive? will it slow down my boot time? and so on—that I stay away from this kind of stuff.