As promised in yesterday's post (see "Labor Day news leak -- Google Chrome"), I've done some very light-touch printing experiments with the beta version of the new web browser that has the tech world buzzing, Google (NASDAQ GOOG) Chrome. (This was after multiple tries and finally having success in getting through the download -- seems it's quite popular!)
The screen shot above shows (like with the other images in this post, please click through on this one to get a readable view) the pull-down menu ("Control the page") on the upper right that includes the print command. (Note my test page is the press release, "HP (NYSE HPQ) Delivers Color to Small Businesses for Improved Marketing Efforts", which includes two new color laser printers and an interesting finishing product tie-in.) The outcome was typical old-school web browser, with what should be a two-page document overlapping with that annoying third page. (See illustration and thanks, GreenPrint, for eliminating it before actual printing.)
By comparison, the print-enhanced Microsoft (NASDAQ MSFT) Internet Explorer 7.0 (see "A big day for Internet Printing") handles the two pages as we would prefer, with no third-page elimination required by GreenPrint. Like more earnest reviewers are discovering*, in this case, when Google says "beta" they really mean "beta" -- as opposed to very refined services like their Gmail which is also still labeled as beta. Sometime before final Chrome code, let's hope the Google masters recognize the customer need for enhanced printing. (* for an example see David Pogue's "Serious Potential in Google's browser".)
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