Ron Schenone

Google Cloud Printing In The Testing Stages

Posted by on Apr 16, 2010 | 5 Comments

What sounds like it could be an impossible task, Google is introducing what they call ‘Google Cloud Print’ in which any application will be able to print to every printer. As we all know, the traditional print system requires that a driver be installed for a particular hardware device. Since this is not a practical solution for those who may chose to use the Chromium OS, Google is going to try and address this problem. The testing and deveopment stages should prove interesting and if Google is able to pull this off, should add considerable value to their operating system when it becomes available.

In addition, on The Chromium Blog site it also states the following information:

Google Cloud Print is still under development, but today we are making code and documentation public as part of the open-source Chromium and Chromium OS projects. While we are still in the early days of this project, we want to be as transparent as possible about all aspects of our design and engage the community in identifying the right set of open standards to make cloud-based printing ubiquitous. You can view our design docs and outlines here and we hope you stay tuned for updates in the coming months.


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If Google is able to pull this off,  it could give the company a huge advantage in the race to cloud computing. The ability to print from any where will make Google’s cloud computing even more attractive.

Comments welcome.

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  • Dick

    Sigh. I’m so out of touch. My printer is sitting 3 feet from me and I haven’t had a printing problem in years. It never occurred to me that being able to print to any printer from any computer, anywhere, would be a thing to want. When I leave the house the last thing I want is a computer around. Other than the media on hard disk, I can’t imagine being on the Internet when my wife, a boat and fishing tackle are waiting for me. On the way to or from WORK the last thing I wanted was WORK. Getting in your car with a cell phone on is like entering a clean room with cow poop all over your boots. I’m so confused. I think I’ll take another nap.

    • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

      Heh Dick,
      I think I’ll join you for that nap! LOL

  • http://www.stareclips.com/?cloud-printing StareClips.com

    You’re looking at it wrong.

    1) Google Cloud Print isn’t about printing to a printer that is in another building so you can go run to that building to pick up your print-out. It’s purely about making a standard for printers. When a new operating system is introduced, it faces the uphill battle of getting every hardware maker out there to write drivers for the OS. To avoid this, they’re coming up with creative solutions that don’t require this effort.

    2) Your PC which is sitting a few feet from your printer isn’t likely to have ChromeOS installed on it. ChromeOS is primarily being promoted as an alternative OS for netbooks. The whole purpose of owning a netbook is similar to that of an iPad. It isn’t meant to be sitting on a desk permanently near a printer. It is meant to be carried around. Set down anywhere. Portable. When you’re ready to print with a portable device, you are more likely going to want to print wirelessly than have to plug into the printer for printing. Sure, wireless options have been around for a while. This is just ChromeOS’s implementation of the concept.

    3) When printing through the cloud, more innovation can take place. Imagine choosing to have your printed documents also archived electronically. Remember when you placed that order online 8 months ago and printed the receipt page just in case you needed to utilize the warranty? Where’s that print-out when you need it? If you printed it using Cloud Print with a little bit of innovation in the market, maybe you just search for it and run the print again. The more old-school technologies that move to the cloud, the more others can innovate on the technology. Even if the old-school technology works just fine and isn’t broken, moving it to the cloud makes it possible for whole new markets to be born.

    Again, this isn’t about solving a problem so much as it is about moving a technology into a platform which allows more collaboration and innovation. It may be a small blip on the radar, but the number of blips on that radar are growing and will eventually be too big to ignore.

    • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

      Hello StareClips,com,
      Thanks for the explanation.

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