The deal builds on existing connections between Google and the two software providers. The deal will mean that the Google toolbar will be offered for free to anyone who installs any of Mozilla or RealNetworks' software.
The three companies that have made this pact are all competitors of Microsoft. This pact will stretch Microsoft even further than it already is. With these companies partnering up they will be able to hit Microsoft from three different directions: Mozilla are putting in a strong and credible bid to impinge severely on Microsoft's Internet Explorer as the market leader for web browsers; RealPlayer is amongst the top competitors with Microsoft's Windows Media Player; while Google, of course, are running away from Microsoft in the online market.
For anyone who doesn't already know why the Google Toolbar is so useful to Google, in summary from a previous bigmouthmedia newsletter:
"The installation of the Google toolbar onto a computer is very useful to Google. [It] allows Google to monitor how the internet is used and what web pages are more popular than others. If every machine ran the Google Toolbar, then Google would easily be able to determine the rank of all web pages on the net [based on] their traffic; and so be able to always give us the best results in its SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)."
This partnership can be viewed in two different ways as far as benefits to the user are concerned. First of all it can be seen as a good thing that Google is spreading its toolbar to a broader pool of users, hence supplying Google with more search statistics and allowing them to evaluate which pages on the internet actually are in fact the most popular to human users. Secondly, Google will be able to make its search algorithm as good as it can be for its users.
The other view that can be taken is that Google and its partners are teaming up to blow Microsoft out of the water. This could mean that Microsoft will struggle to fight against all three, and hence their online strategy may suffer, and therefore the level of competition they provide could decrease.
But then again, Microsoft could just throw some resource at the problem...
