Monday, April 19, 2010

Google Cloud Print Announcement- Exciting Stuff!

Google has announced Google Cloud Print, check out details from Google here. This is an incredibly important step in creating the ability to print from a variety of new applications, and devices. TechCrunch covered this announcement, too. It's very notable in light of (and in contrast to) the Apple iPad introduction, which doesn't actually appear to have a hard copy strategy. For the moment at least, printing from the iPad is dependent on some relatively primitive printing apps available from third-parties. I think this technology and approach could be far-reaching, beyond the Chrome OS; Google also needs a great printing strategy to complement Google Docs. I'm hoping that this will follow in short order; my company is in the process of adopting Google Enterprise Apps, for document collaboration. Robust printing is certainly something that we get from Microsoft Operating Systems at this point. As we transition to Cloud applications, especially for office productivity and document management, there is a great opportunity to do much more. I'm also hoping that commercial print can benefit from Google Cloud Print. My investigation is just beginning.