Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Google co-founder Larry Page announced the new Google Pack from the keynote podium. The new software offering is basically a quick and easy (and free) way to get "essential" software onto your PC. There's Picasa, a basic photo editor and organizer, Google Desktop for quick PC searches, Firefox for streamlined browsing, and even basic virus and spyware protection, courtesy of Symantec and Ad-Aware.

If you're one of our readers, you're probably a PC enthusiast who has most of this stuff already. But we think Google did a pretty good job of anticipating the needs of novice computer users, and equipping them with useful tools. Many of the included apps are Editors' Choice award winners in their own right, and those that aren't still generally scored high marks in our reviews.

The only pieces of the pack that we don't already have reviews of are the Google Pack Screen Saver and Adobe Reader 7. That said, in some cases we've included the reviews of previous versions, like our review of Trillian 1.0 (the current version is 3.0) and RealPlayer. Still, we hope the reviews below will give you a good idea of what you're getting with Google Pack, and whether or not it's worth downloading to your PC. Get all the details by clicking on the links below, and you can download the pack at http://pack.google.com.

In this roundup:

Google Earth
, Editors' Choice
Google Earth offers a powerful yet extremely easy-to-use digital globe that makes it a cinch to find a wide variety of geographical data for travel, business, or educational purposes. Find out more fun ways to use this service here.

Picasa
, Editors' Choice
Picasa 2.0 ranks with the leading photo-management tools, including Adobe Photoshop Album and ACDSee. It's also an easy way to do those quick photo edits like redeye reduction and color tweaking.

Google Desktop

Need to find something in the maze of folders on your hard drive? Google Desktop might be the answer.

Google Toolbar for IE
, Editors' Choice
With an effective pop-up blocker and handy links, it's the IE toolbar to beat.

Mozilla Firefox
The slickest browser around boasts excellent tab controls, streamlined user preferences, a robust extensions system, fast page loading, and good security.

Norton AV 2005 Special Edition
, Editors' Choice
Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition doesn't have everything the regular version has (like Internet worm protection), but it's still provides a basic level of protection.

Ad-Aware SE Personal

Ad-Aware does a good job of detecting and removing spyware, and provides useful information about the threats it finds. We would recommend as a backup to your main antispyware utility, though.

Optional Google Pack Software:

Google Talk

Google Talk is a great way to do basic instant messaging and VoIP.

GalleryPlayer HD Images

View high-quality, high-res paintings and photos—never available digitally before—on your PC. Our only hang up was the cost, which Google has kindly taken care of for us.

RealPlayer

For simple media player functions, RealPlayer gets the job done.

Trillian

Trillian lets you communicate with AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! users with a single streamlined app.