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Google wants to clean up printer drivers, offers unified cloud-based printing architecture
As part of the Chromium project -- the root of both Google's Chrome OS and Chrome browser -- Google is now looking to move printing, and the associated management overhead, to the cloud. Rather than trying to print from your computer, you'll send the document to the cloud and Google will then communicate with your printer. This isn't such a massive deal for installed desktop PCs, but think about handheld devices: imagine being able to print a document from your mobile phone without having to worry about printer drivers or third-party applications. Very cool.
How does it work? Well it's still early days -- the code only appeared on the Chromium Project site a few hours ago -- but it looks like it could work with both network-attached printers and local (USB) printers using some kind of 'print proxy'. The app would send the document and details of the printer into the cloud -- Google Cloud Print (or another cloud service) would then send back a correctly-formatted request to the printer, via the proxy.
Very smart, and not all that difficult to deploy. We might see this one ready for testing sooner rather than later.
Comments
10
Subscribe to comments216Apr 16th 2010 8:31AM
Crazy how they're starting this the same time as HP's Cloud Printing service is starting up
Sebastian AnthonyApr 16th 2010 8:38AM
Dang, is that still going? That was mentioned in 2006... or 2007...
richard.gaileyApr 16th 2010 8:33AM
Sounds interesting. I'd like to know about the security that was in place to be honest. For my own personal use it wouldn't be an issue, but if people at work were to try this I'd be concerned about customer confidentiality being compromised.
I know I'm paranoid but meh..
Sebastian AnthonyApr 16th 2010 8:37AM
Ya... fair concerns, when it comes to THE CLOUD.
Pretty sure it'll just be a normal online service tho'. Log in... authenticate/bond with your printer... and go!
epobirsApr 16th 2010 6:32PM
The sad thing is that HP was testing a system that eliminated printer drivers back in the 90s. The company I worked for back then was a big test lab for printer related software and drivers, and was doing test work for HP on the JetSend tech. This was when the LJ4000 was being readied for market.
The tech appeared to work pretty well but it was killed off. Later, when HP was contributing similar stuff for the BlueTooth spec, the guys working on it had no knowledge of JetSend. It had been a complete waste.
EvilPoliticiansApr 16th 2010 8:33PM
So very tired of printer "drivers" AKA "software". Printers used to just work. Even back in the 80's. Now you have to install tons of crapware on the off chance you miss something "critical". And everything MUST load during bootup. God forbid you want to print something later.
I have one printer in the house. When the ink runs out I toss it and buy another. Don't like I am not being green? Complain to the huckster printer manufacturers. I put them with their pricier than gold ink refills and bloated software only one rung higher than an inner city used car salesman.
mahApr 17th 2010 2:38AM
It seems that most of the comments are complaining about printer driver installers. Most every printer driver has a base package available for download with which you can skip most if not all of the bloatware of the full-blown installers. I for one have never spent too much time thinking about printer drivers. It's not like you need to install them everyday, and there's no way I'm sending documents I need to print into the cloud for google to "anonymously index" like they do with gmail.
serrebiApr 17th 2010 2:55AM
If anything, this will make printing off mobile devices easier. I doubt it would clean up printer drivers. Though with a system like this, that may be a thing of the past.
nathanjdillonApr 18th 2010 8:51PM
It's this sort of thing that will make tablets like the iPad and Android/Chrome OS etc a viable alternative to a clunky desktop for the average consumer. They're easy to use, have quick load times and can be cheap (not so much the iPad which is a little over priced.)
matthiasApr 17th 2010 1:29PM
i would like to see a service where i can send my document to "the cloud" and it prints it automatically in the nearest copy shop. should be no problem for google the see the location of the ip address and send it to a copy shop near to you.