Nowadays, when you buy a PC from Dell (or most major manufacturers) you have to reformat and reinstall to get the full performance of the hardware, as the default installation comes packed with oodles of bloatware.
For example, when I reformated my recently purchased Dell Inspiron 6000, I gained 200 megabytes of RAM on boot.
Well, Google’s latest move should convince more people to notice the bundled software, as it is testing a deal with Dell to put two Google features pre-installed on new laptops and desktops. From eWeek:
For now, some Dell laptops and desktop computers are sold with two Google Inc. search features pre-installed, a Dell spokesman said.
Dell is also putting the paces to a Google-powered Web site that appears to be a hybrid of Dell’s online store and Google’s personalized Web site.
So, what “features” are we talking about here? The obvious ones are the Toolbar and Desktop suite, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s exactly what it is. Also, I suspect the personalized Dell page is the start page on those systems. Considering how the Desktop (search) suite hurts performance every bit as much as it helps productivity, I’m hoping Dell is only installing it on systems with at a minimum half a gig of RAM.
I’ve never liked bundling, I’ve gotten into it before. It’s good for Google to get this exposure, so I’m happy for them, and its certainly better than the crap Dell usually installs, but its still bundling.
(via Andy Beal)
Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.
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