PALO ALTO, Calif. (CBS) ― Although Google's upcoming video store got most of the press, Google co-founder Larry Page made another important announcement during his CES keynote address. He also introduced the Google Pack , a suite of software applications that can be installed with one simple download.

I'm home from Las Vegas and have had a chance to download and install the new Google Pack.

The inspiration behind Google Pack , according to Google vice president Marissa Mayer, came from Page himself who "bought a computer, set it up himself and it took him about 3 hours to click through dozens of license agreements and more than 50 clicks on wizards."

Before I talk about what the Google Pack is and how it works, let me say what it is not. It does not contain any Office-type productivity applications and it's not a frontal assault against Microsoft.

That's not to say that Microsoft shouldn't worry. Google certainly has the capacity to challenge the software behemoth's cash cow products but that, if it ever happens, is for another day. Also, there is nothing in the Google Pack that you can't get for free elsewhere on the Internet. Still, it does add value because of the way it installs and updates the programs it comes with.

While I have mixed feelings about some of its components, I do have to give Google credit for the way it enables users to easily download and install the suite of programs. Just go to pack.google.com (or see the link at Google.com), follow the very simple instructions and you'll be using the software in as little as a few minutes. About the only programs out there that are easier to install than Google Pack are the bad ones like spyware and viruses that, literally, install themselves.

Google Pack comes with Adobe Reader 7, which is an essential piece of software for reading PDF files, but one that is already extremely widely deployed. Many PCs already come bundled with it and it's not all that hard to download and install from Adobe's website. But with Google Pack you won't have to worry about keeping it up to date. It also comes with the RealPlayer media player, which I suspect most people have as well.

There are two security programs bundled with Google Pack . It comes with Ad-Aware SE Personal, which is an anti-spyware program, and Norton Anti-Virus 2005 Special Edition. Both do a good job at their appointed tasks, but neither comes with a firewall to protect you against an intruder.

The Norton program comes with six months of updates but after that you'll have to pay to keep the program aware of the latest threats. What's more, when you go to install the Norton component, you are warned that the free version doesn't include Norton Internet Worm Protection, "which stops certain damaging Internet worms at their attempted point of entry; and extended threat protection, which detects spyware and certain non-virus threats such as adware and keystroke logging programs." For those and other features, you'll find a link to a Symantec web page that will try to sell you programs which, by the way, all have 2006 in their title. The Google is bundling the 2005 version of Norton Anti-Virus.

The Ad-Aware product is a Lavasoft free program that tries to entice users to pay for an upgrade. Google has smartly required all of the software vendors to be relatively subtle about upgrades – no pop-ups to bug you – but when you try to use certain Ad-Aware features, you're told that they're not available unless you buy the upgrade.

If you're going to pay for protection, I prefer the all-in-one security suites from TrendMicro and ZoneAlarm or Symantec, because they give you complete protection against all major threats in one frequently updated package. As per spyware, there are many excellent programs on the market including the ones that come with the major security suites and free ones from Microsoft and Spybot Search and Destroy.

Also, there is a subtle danger when any dominant company – whether it's Google or Microsoft – starts distributing free security software. The danger is that if too many people start using any single product, it becomes a major target for hackers. It's called "single point of failure." I'm not too worried about this right now, but it's something to think about if Google becomes extremely successful in deploying this software.

The pack also comes with GalleryPlayer HD Images and Google Pack Screensaver. The Gallery images are just some very cool looking graphics that can show up as your screensaver. The Google Pack Screen Saver is one of several that will turn your personal photo collection into a screen saver to fill your screen while your PC is idle.

Picasa, which is published by Google and is also available for free separately, is a very nice photo editing and presentation system. Reminiscent of Apple's fabulous iPhoto software (available only on the Mac), Picasa helps you quickly find, edit and share photos on your PC.

The interface is very Google-like in its simplicity and elegance. The software scans your drive for all your photos and presents them on screen. You can click on any photo and do basic simple editing such as cropping, straightening, removing red-eye and adjusting lighting and color. The "I'm feeling lucky" button attempts a one-click fix for lighting and color.

Like the feature built-into Windows XP itself, the program can also be used to create a slide show though, as far as I can tell, it doesn't allow you to add music to the show. My favorite feature, Timeline, automatically creates a show based on the dates the pictures were taken. This is not a full-featured image editor but, to be honest, I rarely use most of the features of the editor I now have. For many people, this may be all the imaging software they need.

The two other Google applications are the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer that allows you to do a search from any web page and autofill forms as well as Google Earth that lets users fly around the world at just about street level and zoom-in on home, businesses, monuments and other objects.

Another very nice program is the Trillian instant messenger from Cerulean Studios. This single program allows you to exchange text messages with people on AOL's AIM service, Microsoft's MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

You also get a copy of the Mozilla Firefox browser, the challenger to Microsoft Internet Explorer from the non-profit Mozilla Foundation.

The most useful piece of software in Google Pack isn't one of the programs you use but the updater that runs in the background to make sure all the software remains up-to-date without your having to deal with annoying reminders.

As I said, most of this software is already available for free so, in one sense there is nothing particularly exciting about this new product. On the other hand, being able to access several useful tools with one stop (free) shopping does have its appeal. Get yours now!