A Match Made in Hell

The devil and his sidekick (you decide which is which) have teamed up. Dell has agreed to preinstall Google web and desktop search software on their computers. You don't even have to wait for your brand new Dell computer to have spyware toolbars now, the Google toolbar will be there from the start.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt stated "the real reason we do this is for users, turn the Dell machine on, and everything is integrated right there. (This deal) is a turnkey solution for search." Customers will be happy about this I'm sure, at least until Google's stock tanks along with their retirement fund and they receive a casual reminder everytime they use their computer (not that I have an opinion or anything).

Dell claims that "our motivation is to deliver customers tools that enable them to search and organize information quickly and easily, right out of the box...Dell customers will have the option of choosing Microsoft as their default if they prefer." We'll see how smoothly that actually works for people.

It would certainly be nice if these companies could just ship computers with no third-party applications preinstalled and let the consumers choose.

Tags: Google, Dell