Google Cloud Print - Chrome OS first, then the world

Stephen Withers
Monday, 19 April 2010 12:16

Business IT - Open Source

Google has revealed its plans for printing from Chrome OS, and they are potentially applicable to other types of device.

One of the perceived shortcomings of Google's Chrome OS was the absence of print support. The company has now revealed how it expects printing will work in this environment.

Given that all Google Chrome OS applications are web applications, and that the operating system is largely targeted at mobile devices, it makes sense to use an Internet-based printing system.

Google Cloud Print is at an early stage, but the basic idea is that the application will send the print job to Google Cloud Print, a cloud-based service that will take care of delivering the job to the selected printer.

Hypothetical 'cloud-aware' printers will register with the service, watch for queued print jobs, then download and print them.

The plan is that people will be able to associate their printers with their Google accounts, from which they can be shared with other users.

Page 2 - why cloud printing makes particular sense for Chrome OS.