I received a note last week requesting that all Google software be removed
from our corporate computers. The justification from our CTO was that Google is
now secretly packaging with other applications and installing the Google Toolbar
without the user’s knowledge and consent.
Personally, I have been a fan of the Google’s Toolbar. Like most
others users, I used the toolbar initially to eliminate pop-up advertisements.
It seemed once the browser war with Netscape was over, Microsoft was content to
sit back and let IE rot on the vine. I guess I cannot blame them since Internet
Explorer is not a profit center for the company. However, with latest versions
of IE, I cannot really justify having the toolbar installed, but like an old
friend I will miss her/him/it.
I can appreiate the CIO’s position. Recently, I’ve had to go to the advanced
options and unselect Google’s Toolbar while installing Sun’s Java and Adobe’s
Flash player. I don’t appreciate applications secretly being installed without
the users knowledge. Forcing the user to go into the Advanced settings to remove
the toobar is a weak defense, because they know most users are intimidated by
‘Advanced’ options.
For all those Google fanboys out there that are hoping that Google will
overtake Microsoft in the desktop OS and application business, you might want to
start questioning why they are packaging their toolbar product with seemingly
unrelated applications. What business advantage does Google gain from having
search information from a majority of the internet’s userbase and how will they
safeguard that information from misuse and abuse.
