Google's paid video service drew the most press at CES last week, but what's the deal with Google Pack? Didn't hear about that one? That's because it received little to no press.

Google Pack is a new service that allows users to download all of their favorite Google client applications at once along with applications from 3rd party vendors. Users can download Google Earth, Desktop, Toolbar, Picasa, and Talk all at once, getting you up to speed on many of Google's most popular client applications in short order. Additionally, Google Pack offers downloads for other popular utilities and applications, including FireFox, Norton AntiVirus, Adobe Reader, and RealPlayer. As of this writing, Google Pack's downloads total to more than 100mb, so prepare use some bandwidth to get caught up if you decide to jump on the Google Pack train.

Pack also comes with an application management program to keep your programs up to date called - appropriately- Google Updater. This program checks for new versions of downloaded software and handles installations and uninstalls.

Why Google Pack?

What does Google gain from launching Pack? The most obvious thing is increased exposure to their full line of client applications. Rather than stumbling across Google's applications, users can now get them all at once through Pack.

Offering third party applications through Pack takes things a bit further by giving Google a role beyond what even Microsoft has on the desktop. What would happen if Microsoft created an application that suggested which antivirus and anti-spyware application you should use? They would get slapped for anti-competitive practices. But it looks like Google's getting away with it.

Assuming Google Pack catches on (a link on Google's homepage should do the trick), Google will be perfectly positioned to offer additional desktop applications including OpenOffice. If that happens, Microsoft could lost market share on their highly profitable office suite with home office and small business users. If Google Pack becomes a popular application management program, who really controls the desktop: Microsoft, who builds the desktop, or Google, who concievably manages everything on the desktop?

Pack: A quiet, but potentially very influential to Google's product line.