Google Takes Printing To The Cloud

According to a blog post in The New York Times, Google plans on creating a new way of printing, with all the necessary software needed to print jobs also stored in the cloud.

This new Google Cloud Print paradigm is needed, Google says, because with so many different kinds of devices (desktops, laptops, iPads, smartphones) now able to read documents, it’s impractical to create printer drivers for every one and every printer.

Instead, under Google Cloud Print, your device will send a print command to the cloud, where print instructions will be downloaded to a new generation of cloud-aware printers. And if you don’t have a cloud-aware printer, which no one does yet, a piece of software on your device will take the cloud instructions and translate them to let you print.

What this concept gives users is the ability to print to any printer, anywhere in the world, even if that printer isn’t connected to a PC. While this sounds like a good idea, Google’s announcement was greeted with derision by many in the developer community.

Photo by Google.

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