There is a purpose. Several sites that depend on document submissions of different formats (like pdfs, ppts, word docs, etc.) might need an efficient way to ren

There is a purpose. Several sites that depend on document submissions of different formats (like pdfs, ppts, word docs, etc.) might need an efficient way to render these document previews on a page. Those sites can use an api from scribd, documentcloud, etc. to display these files inline. There is a certain very valid and extremely useful use case to sites like this, of course, linking random internet users to pdfs through them shouldn't be one of them ;) I am in no way affiliated with any of these services, just came across this use case while building something for someone in the past.