4 ms·

What will be the main advantage? It's a great technical challenge, but will users notice the difference?

• abstractbill 16y ago
  This is a little indirect, but presumably the googlebot will find it easier to index scribd pages, which might help you as a user if you're searching for something that's hosted on scribd.
  • axod 16y ago
    True, although .pdf files are already indexed. Do we also need to have html5 versions of those same pdfs indexed? I'm not sure we do.
• hazzen 16y ago
  Users will be able to easily view PDFs on the web from any device. I primarily read HN on my phone. Any time I see a [Scribd] link, I forget about the story because I can't read it. I have also had several occasions where I needed to read a PDF on the go. I had to email it to a friend and then call them, dictating the pertinent bits over the phone. Once this is live, Scribd will gain at least myself as a user, and I suspect many more. (Nesting is too deep to reply to axod, so: the fact that Google is doing this should be reason enough. Scribd exists as a place to publish material. That material should be reachable by as many users as they can manage.)
  • axod 16y ago
    http://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf http://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://infolab.stanford.edu... Works fine for me :/
• warfangle 16y ago
  Although the semantic web is still pie-in-sky-land, having your content structured instead of a big block o' text is always better. Especially if your users are disabled.