However, positive points of the system include the truly plug-and-play, cloud-equipped printer, and there will be no need to mess around installing drivers on any computer that wants to print to it.

It should also mean printing is less hassle for users; once the job has been uploaded to Cloud Print, the user is free to shut down their computer. Using USB-connected printers, by contrast, users have to wait until the print job has finished.

One wonders if Google plans to connect any other mundane hardware to the cloud. I can imagine image scanners being next in line, at least based on the hardware profile of a typical home or business. No doubt Google would love to get its hands on the data contained in any documents or images you might choose to scan in. But whether access to such data is worth the effort of Google creating specific hardware and software protocols for the purpose remains to be seen.

In theory, at least you can try Google Cloud Print now via , which will turn any USB-connected printer into a cloud device. However, you'll need a Google account in order to register the printer, and the special version of Chrome only works on Windows (Mac and Linux support is coming soon, apparently).

Once the software is installed, access the Under the Hood settings with Preferences and click the Sign in to Google Cloud Print entry on the menu.