Google Builds a Native PDF Reader Into Chrome

An anonymous reader writes "Google's latest Chrome 6 Developer Update comes with a few subtle GUI changes, but there is also a major update under the hood. As its ties with Adobe quite apparently grow stronger, there is not just an integrated Flash player, but also a native PDF reader in the latest version of Chrome 6. Google says the native reader will allow users to interact with PDF files just like they do with regular HTML pages. The reader is included in Chrome versions (Chromium) 6.0.437.1 and higher, and you can use the feature after you have enabled it manually in the plug-ins menu. That is, of course, if you can keep Chrome 6 alive — Windows users have reported frequent crashes, and Google has temporarily suspended the update progress to find out what is going on." The Register has some more details on the PDF plugin and a link to Google's blog post about it.

Comments

Re:PDF plugin, OK. PDF built-in? Not so sure...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not fully qualified to comment on this since I will never be a Chrome user until someone forks off a "stainless steel" release where a group of people have poured over the source code to ensure there is no Google data collecting going on and then compiles it themselves for distribution.

No, I think what you want is the "tinfoil hat" release.

But seriously, it's called Chromium. It's the fully open source project that feeds into Chrome, and it's free of all Google branding and such. For what it's worth though, there's nothing in Chrome that does anything remotely close to what you're afraid of. Feel free to run it for a couple of weeks through a debugging proxy to watch what it does (I have).

Re:PDF files will render as seamlessly as HTML?

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

Or am I misunderstanding that feature?

Saying "PDF files will render as seamlessly as HTML" is not the same as "PDF files will render as HTML".

So, yes, I think you misunderstand.

Re:PDF files will render as seamlessly as HTML?

[iammani]

Actually google already has an excellent online PDF viewer, it seems to display PDFs as an image, but still manages selection of words, searching and copying. Here is a sample IRS PDF I wouldnt be surprised, if the same code was converted into a chrome plugin.

Re:Chrome, you're losing me!

[Zarel]

From a security point of view, I'd feel better if Google wrote their own PDF implementation. Far be it for me to read TFA, but I get the impression that this code comes from Adobe, whose software generally makes me nervous.

I've read it for you. The code doesn't come from Adobe, Google wrote it themselves. It also uses Google's new sandboxed plugin API, so it would be less of a security concern even if it did.

(I'm surprised you got two replies who also didn't RTFA.)

Re:You did not RTFA either

[Zarel]

because TFA doesn't explain that google wrote it themselves. Heck, even the google blog announcement doesn't explain that google wrote it themselves. Guess what, it turns out google did not write it themselves, they're using libpdf.so which is libpdf

I was referring to the Google blog post, which is linked from the Slashdot summary and thus counts as "TFA".

It says "Currently, we do not support 100% of the advanced PDF features found in Adobe Reader, such as certain types of embedded media" and "We would also like to work with the Adobe Reader team to bring the full PDF feature set to Chrome using the same next generation browser plug-in API", which I took to mean that:

1. it clearly isn't being written by Adobe, and
2. even if Google didn't write it, they are maintaining and improving it, so they "wrote it" in the same sense that Apple "wrote" WebKit.

As for the "libpdf.so", part, I assume you're looking at the part of the code that says

#if defined(OS_WIN)
            cur = cur.Append(FILE_PATH_LITERAL("pdf.dll"));
#elif defined(OS_MACOSX)
            cur = cur.Append(FILE_PATH_LITERAL("PDF.plugin"));
#else // Linux and Chrome OS
            cur = cur.Append(FILE_PATH_LITERAL("libpdf.so"));
#endif

Which means that they're using a file called libpdf.so on Linux. As another one of your replies points out, this is doubtful to be the 9-year-old unmaintained incomplete C library you link to, and judging from the Windows and Mac filenames, this is nearly definitely a library written (or at least maintained) by Google.