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Printer Cloud Google

Google Is Terminating Google Cloud Print (9to5google.com) 64

Google has announced that Cloud Print, its cloud-based printing solution, is being retired at the end of next year. 9to5Google reports: The announcement comes in the form of a support document for Cloud Print that popped up recently, which is kind enough to remind us that Cloud Print has technically been in beta since it launched a decade ago: "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. 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."

Google notes that Chrome OS' native printing solutions have been vastly improved since Cloud Print launched in 2010, and also promises that native printing in Chrome OS will continue to get more features over time: "Google has improved the native printing experience for Chrome OS, and will continue adding features to native printing. For environments besides Chrome OS, or in multi-OS scenarios, we encourage you to use the respective platform's native printing infrastructure and/or partner with a print solutions provider."

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Google Is Terminating Google Cloud Print

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  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Thursday November 21, 2019 @07:25PM (#59441020)

    Oh, actually I was standing when I read that - which didn't matter, because I wasn't shocked by this news, at all.

    I mean, come on. It's already November and Google is probably way behind on its quota of products to discontinue.

  • Ugh, "chrome OS will improve", just like Android, right?! Leaving all the existing people in the dark.

    I sure hope someone figures out the guts of this and writes a server that can run on a local machine and allow you to redirect DNS to that.

    I bought Chrome OS devices for family so I don't have to deal with this crap. Now printers will be left dead in the water and unable to print stuff from Chromebooks.

    Google has finally raised my ire and I'm going to actively avoid their products. Ironically MS was the

    • Now printers will be left dead in the water and unable to print stuff from Chromebooks.

      I'm not very familiar with Chromebooks but there must be some other way to print a document from one, isn't there?

      • I'm not very familiar with Chromebooks but there must be some other way to print a document from one, isn't there?

        Only if you install ChromeOS on the printer. And then you have to use an at best 3" screen to do so. I joke, I joke.

        Or _DO_ I?

        • Also, every 1 in 3 of the pages you print is an advertisement. Hey, it keeps the connection to your printer free.
      • Yes (Score:4, Informative)

        by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Thursday November 21, 2019 @09:31PM (#59441316) Journal

        > but there must be some other way to print a document from one, isn't there?

        As of a couple years ago, yes. They now have standard printing like any laptop would have.

         

    • by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Thursday November 21, 2019 @07:58PM (#59441110) Journal

      Direct printing was added a couple of years ago.
      You can use either a WiFi printer or a USB printer with your Chromebook the same way you would use to from any other computer.

      https://www.theverge.com/2019/... [theverge.com]

      If you haven't updated Chrome in the last few years, you'll want to turn the option on first under chrome://flags. It's been on by default for a while now.

      Also if you haven't updated Chrome in a couple years, security guy is giving you a funny look.

      • by kulaga ( 159303 )

        Yes, I can do direct printing from my Chromebook but what about my phone, my work laptop, the computer upstairs, random people that come over and need to print, etc.... My fault for depending on Google for a solution!

        • > Yes, I can do direct printing from my Chromebook but what about my phone, my work laptop, the computer upstairs

          On computers, click the File menu, then click Print.

          To add a printer on your phone, open the Settings app on your Android phone and type âoePrintingâ in the search box. Tap on the Printing option that shows up.

          If you really like sending your print jobs over the internet like Google Cloud Print does, many printers can accept documents via email. Just attach the file to an email and s

      • Btw, you can still use Cloud Print within your network if you bought a Cloud Print-ready printer. They should be able to do local discovery, rather than relying on Google's internet print service. You mentioned the protocol API - it's here:
        https://developers.google.com/... [google.com]

        Of course native printing gives you a lot more flexibility as far as setting options and all of that.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        What about Android though? Cloud Print was handy for printing from your phone or tablet. Say you were emailed a boarding pass or something.

        • Open the Settings app on your Android phone and type "Printing" in the search box. Tap on the Printing option that shows up.

          • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            Hmm, there doesn't seem to be an option for my Ricoh. It works with Cloud Print just fine.

            • You might check whether your going by has WiFi and it's turned on / configured. If so it should autodetect. You can also plug USB devices into most Android phones via the correct cable. I'm not an expert on Android printing though. Mostly what I can tell you is that it's there, so there is a standard printing system for which you can Google more information.

              • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                My printer doesn't have WiFi, it's got wired Ethernet that is connected.

                • In that case I think you can do it, but it might not autodetect.
                  You might have to put the IP. But then again I'm no expert.

                  • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                    Hmm, don't really want to open my printer up to the internet. With the old system it just sent the file to Chrome running on my desktop which printed it with the Windows driver.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Some printers will autodetect, others you may need to type the IP, depending on settings.

          Where you go from here depends on whether your goal is to get your printer working, or to complain.

      • What I don't see is a way to print from my Chromebook to any random printer connected to another computer where I'm signed in. For example, I could print from my work chromebook to my work network printer, because Cloud Print treated it as any other printer. It is not, however, a wireless printer or a local USB printer...so I don't see what my options are any more. I just lose that functionality permanently, apparently.

        • Because it's a network printer, you should be able to connect to it from the Chromebook the same way you connected from your other work computer. That is to say, there ia no longer any need to do it indirectly, routing print jobs through another computer.

          That does mean that to print to the work printer you need to be on the work network. You may need to manually enter the IP if it isn't autodetected.

  • Never heard of it (Score:4, Insightful)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Thursday November 21, 2019 @07:36PM (#59441054) Journal

    I'm sure it was useful to someone somewhere but to be honest, I'd never heard of it.

  • Used to use GCP a lot, but haven't recently. Not surprised at all that they're killing something useful. This is why I'd never buy into something like Stadia. It's going to be dead in a year...
  • Well crap, why Google?? How am I supposed to print remotely when I'm not on my lan? And from Android? Use some crappy proprietary printer manufacturer specific service? Ugh!!! And I even used the API to print from apps too. Anybody got a printer neutral open source alternative that doesn't require dealing with PostScript/ghostscript/cups?

    • CUPS *is* the "printer-neutral open source alternative".
      No need to "deal with CUPS", just hit the Printing button I the GUI and it'll handle CUPS for you.

      On your Android phone, open the Settings app and then in the search box type Printing.

  • Google Is Terminating Google Cloud Print

    I tried printing a bunch of clouds, but the pages all looked blank.

  • How will I print from my first gen chrome book? How will I print clouds from it? What about all the pictures I have on it? How will I continue to install windows 95 on my 20 year old hardware if Intel stop hosting drivers no one has downloaded in 15 years? Oh wait, sorry, that was that other thread. It's ok when Google turns off crap almost no one cares about but it's a fucking national emergency requiring a rewrite of our patent and copyright laws and a constitutional amendment when ancient Intel driv
  • by zephvark ( 1812804 ) on Thursday November 21, 2019 @08:21PM (#59441176)

    Google has a really nasty habit of just dropping products that don't ramp up hard enough and fast enough. They could probably do better than that if they spent another year or so on them but, the profit curve isn't what they wanted. I'm not clear how much they notice that when they keep doing this, their customers keep getting to know better than to rely on Google solutions.

    Microsoft has been an utter catastrophe in doing the same thing for decades, and much worse. You'd think Google might have learned something. Microsoft will completely lock you in to products that they promise will last forever, and then destroy the whole product line within a year. Your music? Gone! And look, one of the next four mutually-incompatible versions of Windows CE/mobile/whatever might last a little! We have a new version of Microsoft Windows that has mostly the same features but, you'll never find them, because we changed all the names. We even decided to go from flat icons, to 3D oriented one way, to 3D oriented the other way, back to flat icons in the name of PROGRESS. Welcome to Windows 3.10 ... 0000000.

    Google just fucks up a lot and it's often screwed me over. Microsoft is often both unspeakably incompetent and actively malevolent.

  • I used the github repo to cloud print for awhile across a way too insane firewall. You could run it in linux/macos and then print from any device or browser anywhere.
  • by Jason1729 ( 561790 ) on Thursday November 21, 2019 @10:02PM (#59441366)
    I wonder how many game "licenses" they're planning to sell to the suckers before shutting down Stadia.
  • by rnturn ( 11092 ) on Thursday November 21, 2019 @11:44PM (#59441538)

    Why would anyone want to invest any effort, time, or money in anything that Google comes up with? They introduce something, barely promote it, get bored with it, and announce that they're discontinuing it. No problem, I'll disable it on my phone to free up resources, right? Sure... if I want to find out the hard way what they mean by "other apps may misbehave". Great. What apps might that be? Maybe I won't care but how can I know?

  • Does anybody remember this was developed for Android? Which has no native printing capability.

    Just open source the Android app so people can create their own backend printing server and keep printing from Android.

  • But now how will I print off highlights from my Buzz or Reader feeds in order to identify key topics to discuss on Wave? I should go vent my outrage on G+ or Hangouts.

  • by OneHundredAndTen ( 1523865 ) on Friday November 22, 2019 @09:13AM (#59442590)
    Google killing a product - the horror, the horror! Google, the company with the attention span of a toddler. Sergey, Larry, Pichai and Schmidt: you are making Microsoft look almost decent in comparison.
  • Stadia should be the next to get the axe in 6 months. With the current climate of COPPA i'd say YouTube has 2 years before it becomes a video graveyard unless the fed forces YouTube to identify videos as either kid-friendly or not.

    Depending on how gmail fairs.. maybe 10 to 15 years if we're lucky.

  • Because that seems to be the only solution - My current CUPS setup doesn't seem to want to do it, though I need more firewall work to be sure.

    But the same issue with a new 'cloud-enabled' printer, ports and addresses, DDNS, blah blah blah.

    Thanks for the handy 'just click on the' advice. That works just as damned well as it did in 1994. As in not.

  • Someone at Google probably makes a pile of money advertising for the company. They pour all kinds of money into stuff and nobody knows about it because they don't tell anyone. Just like google+. I used it, a bunch of people I know used it, however probably like 99% of the people had no clue it was even out there.

    High time they get someone that knows how to advertise stuff.

  • Chrome OS has its own native printing capability, and as Google says it is improving. That might be an adequate answer for that platform, though some old printers are likely to get left behind.

    But where does that leave Android, where Google Cloud Print IS the native printing solution??

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