Google (GOOG) is looking to leverage its infrastructure to move printing to the cloud. Development is underway for a new feature in Chromium where Google will communicate directly with printers to generate the output. The Google Cloud Print project is a service that enables any application (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer.
Google says that it will work with direct (USB or parallel) and network-attached printers using a Google ‘print proxy’. The app would send the document and details of the printer into the Google Cloud Print (or another cloud) service which will then send back a correctly formatted print request to the printer using the PC operating system’s native print stack and sends job status back to the printer.
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As with most things Google, there is good and bad. The good is that printer management can now be off-loaded. The proposal can decrease the headache of print drivers for grandparents and network admins. Now even hand-held devices can print (think Android, Chrome, tablet, Chrome on a tablet) a document without having to worry about printer drivers or third-party applications.
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.