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Google's software compendium includes a series of first and third-party applications, including Google Earth, Norton Security Scan and Skype.

Until recently the Pack also included Sun's Microsoft Office rival, StarOffice, but the software has been quietly slipped out.

Sun charges $70 for downloads of StarOffice from its own website, pushing people towards sister software OpenOffice if they want an office suite for free.

Google's decision to drop the software may reflect its desire to drive more people towards its free online office suite, which now includes

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applications for creating and sharing documents, spreadsheets, presentations and online forms.

Google may also have been stung into action by recent comments from Microsoft boss, Steve Ballmer, who claimed that: "We have better competition today than Google Docs and Spreadsheets. We get more competition from OpenOffice and StarOffice, frankly," he said.

Google was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

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