RealNetworks bundles up with Mozilla and Google

RealNetworks has signed distribution agreements with both Google and the Mozilla Corporation.

Users installing the Real, Rhapsody or RealArcade software applications will be offered the option to also install the Firefox browser, as well as the Google Toolbar and Desktop search applications.

For the past two years Real has distributed the Google Toolbar. The software maker logs about two million downloads of its software monthly.

Google has a series of similar bundling deals with software developers, including one with Adobe and one with Sun Microsystems for its Toolbar.

The toolbar for Internet Explorer (IE) steers online searchers to the Google search engine. IE has MSN Search as its default search engine.

The bundling deals offer a software distribution channel for free software outside of computer manufacturers and Microsoft.

Financial details of the arrangement weren't disclosed, but software makers typically pay a fee for each download or installation.