Google quietly revealed this week that it will kill Cloud Print, a cloud-based printing solution that never exited beta over almost 10 years.
“Cloud Print, Google’s cloud-based printing solution that has been in beta since 2010, will no longer be supported as of December 31, 2020,” a Google support document explains. “Beginning January 1, 2021, devices across all operating systems will no longer be able to print using Google Cloud Print. We recommend that over the next year, you identify an alternative solution and execute a migration strategy.”
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Cloud Print integrated with other Google services like Gmail, Google Docs, and Chrome, and it was originally positioned as a printing solution for Chrome OS. But with Chrome OS offering native print services now, Cloud Print became superfluous. Certainly, the Chrome OS print experience is on par with that of, say, Windows 10 in S mode.
Regardless, Google is getting savaged by bloggers for killing yet another service, one that most of them never even tried, let alone used regularly. But the biggest impact here, I bet, will be in education, since Chromebooks are sold in large part on their lack of management expertise. And figuring out whether they can still print will be a task many educators are not ready for.
Stooks
<p>ONLY Google product I use at all is YouTube. I doubt they will kill it. Screw it up…no doubt. </p><p><br></p><p>Their latest high res thumbnail change was a bad move IMHO. Less thumbnails on the screen and it loads slightly slower. Yes the thumbnails are better quality but they were just fine before…because they are thumbnails.</p>
Bats
<p>Google only kills free products of which their analytical data shows, no one uses.</p><p><br></p><p>I have loved the concept of Cloud Printing, ever since I first tried Google Cloud Print. It's a nice idea, but it's ? not necessary. Why? Two reasons:</p><p><br></p><ol><li>The reasons and needs to print on paper is lessening (alot) each day/month/year. We email now. Electronic signatures or "/s/ Your name" is getting to be more common. Not just that, but we also use Apps with barcodes. For example, when you buy movie tickets online, there is no need to print anymore. Just show the app with the barcode or reservation number. Generally speaking, legal/non-legal documentation is more and more being accepted electronically than paper.</li><li>Wifi printing is much faster than cloud printing. Maybe someday that will happen and perhaps Microsoft can lead that charge (but doubt it), but in this fast pace world we live in, direct wifi is better.</li></ol><p><br></p><p>Again, no biggie. Google shouldn't care about what bloggers say. They are not exactly "real" people with real jobs to know or understand how normal people behave. They are just (what….?) one percent of the cloud printing population? That's not enough to keep a rarely used service around. Ask Microsoft…….no one uses Cortana at all….AT ALL….and yet, they kept it around for so long. LOL….at least Google Cloud Print was around for a decade. </p><p><br></p><p>Believe me, I am all for cloud services. But if Google Cloud Print or any type of "FREE SERVICE" isn't working……next project!</p><p><br></p>