Google Search Allows Quick Rendering Of PDF Files
Google has just introduced the option to “Quick View” PDF documents included in search results, without being the need of a local PDF viewer. Practically, by clicking “Quick View” link, the browser will correctly render the PDF file, by maintaining its default formatting. Until now, when links to PDF files were returned as Google search results, you had the option to preview the content of a certain PDF file by following the link named “View as HTML”, but this alternative does not keep the original document formatting, such as images or tables for example.
In a recent blog post published on Google Official Blog, Krista Davis, Software Engineer explains that the addition of the “Quick View” links to PDF files shown as results in Google searches, is based on the same technology as Google Docs Viewer:
“Today, we’ve added new links to “Quick View” PDFs in your browser with the formatting intact. The new links are based on the same technology that’s available in Google Docs and Gmail, as well as to webmasters through the Google Docs viewer. We’ve been rolling this technology out to the search results page since July, and as of today we’ve added “Quick View” links to more than 50% of the PDFs in our index. The new links appear at the end of the second line of the result, right underneath the title.”
By clicking the “Quick View” link associated to a PDF file, you will see a web based viewer showing the complete PDF file with the corresponding download link and “View as HTML” link. You can even print the PDF directly from the web based PDF viewer.
The addition of the possibility to directly view, browse and print PDF documents directly from Google search pages will definitely improve your work flow, removing the need to download PDF files in order to manage them with a local viewer.
Related Articles
